The Health Survey for England 2016 to 2019
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The Health Survey for England 2016 to 2019 - pilot and main stage study
IRAS ID
181305
Contact name
Linda Ng Fat
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
NatCen Social Research
Duration of Study in the UK
5 years, 4 months, 31 days
Research summary
The Health Survey for England (HSE) is part of a programme of surveys commissioned by the Health and Social Care Information Centre. HSE has been conducted since 1994 by the Joint Health Surveys Unit of NatCen Social Research (NatCen) and the Research Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at UCL. The study provides information that cannot be obtained from other sources about the public’s health and many of the factors that affect health. The HSE will continue to monitor trends in the nation’s health, to estimate the proportion of people in England who have certain health conditions, to estimate how common certain risk factors and combinations of risk factors are, and to monitor progress towards selected health targets.\n\nHSE 2016, HSE 2017, HSE 2018, and HSE 2019 (referred to as HSE 2016-2019 hereafter) will each include a new, general population sample of around 8,000 adults (aged 16 and over) and 2,000 children (aged 0-15), representative of the general population both nationally and regionally. Participants will be recruited from January to December each year from everyone living at randomly selected private addresses in England. \n\nAfter an advance letter is sent to the address, an interviewer will visit to ask people living at that address to take part in the survey. Those who agree will also be visited afterwards by a nurse. \n\nThe interview asks about the household, then each individual is asked questions on their general health and health risk factors. Additional modules vary each year and are specified later in this application.\n\nDepending on the participant’s age, measurements are taken of height, weight, waist and hip circumference, and blood pressure; a saliva or urine sample collected; and blood samples taken, with consent, for laboratory analysis.\n\nCore modules will be unchanged for the four years but additional modules will vary. [COVID-19 amendment 09/06/2020] We propose to modify the pandemic ‘flu module so that it could be activated for any pandemic, novel or emerging respiratory infection (not just influenza). We are requesting that serum samples from participants aged 16+ who have given written consent to storage of serum samples for future research can be tested for antibodies against one or more of the following: influenza, coronavirus (including SARS-CoV-2), and any other pandemic, novel or emerging respiratory infection. The ‘flu module data and specimen collection and its subsequent transfer to the RVI laboratory would remain the same as the previous protocol.\nWe are also asking to introduce the flexibility to transfer the serum samples and despatch forms from the RVI laboratory to either the laboratory at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) or to the relevant Public Health England (PHE) laboratory or laboratories. This flexibility will allow the study team to direct the samples to the laboratory with the most relevant expertise and capacity. We also propose that aliquots of the serum samples may be transferred between GOSH and relevant PHE laboratories for the purposes of testing antibodies against one or more of the following: influenza, coronavirus (including SARS-CoV-2), and any other pandemic, novel or emerging respiratory infection.
REC name
East Midlands - Nottingham 2 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/EM/0254
Date of REC Opinion
25 Jun 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion