Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/2529 of 17 November 2023 specifying the technical items of the data set, establishing the technical formats for transmission of information and specifying the detailed arrangements and content of the quality reports on the organisation of a sample survey in the health domain pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 of the European Parliament and of the Council

This Regulation specifies the technical items of the data set, establishes the technical formats for the transmission of information from Member States to the Commission (Eurostat) and specifies the detailed arrangements for the content and transmission of the quality reports in the European Health Interview Survey (EHIS). EHIS shall concern health status, healthcare and health determinants as well as socio-demographic characteristics of the reference population as referred to in Article 4.

For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply: (1) ‘reference period’ means the period to which a particular item of information relates; (2) ‘current’ refers to the situation at the time of the interview; (3) ‘proxy’ means, with reference to an interview, a situation where information requested to the selected respondent has been provided by a third person (including another household member or someone outside the household who takes care of the selected respondent) without being validated by the selected respondent. This third person is close and knows the selected respondent very well; (4) ‘metadata’ means data defining and describing other data, the methodology used and statistical business processes.

1 Member States shall use the statistical concepts laid down in Annex I.

2 The technical characteristics of the variables shall be those laid down in Annex II and shall refer to: (a) the variable identifier; (b) the variable name; (c) the reference period; (d) the modality code and label; (e) filter.

1 The reference population shall be persons aged 15 and over usually residing in private households in the territory of the Member State concerned at the time of the data collection.

2 The national territories listed in Annex III shall be excluded from the sample. Small parts of the national territory amounting to no more than 2 % of the national population may also be excluded from the sample. Information on those national territories shall be provided in the reference metadata.

The reference periods for variables shall be those specified in Annex II.

1 At least three attempts shall be made to contact a respondent before they are dropped from the survey, except in the following situations: (a) the address was impossible to locate; (b) the address was non-residential or unoccupied; (c) the person was not found at the address; (d) the person was unable to respond, including for reasons of incapacity; (e) a definite refusal of the person to cooperate was received; (f) the circumstances were endangering the interviewer’s safety.

2 In duly justified cases, and only to the extent necessary, controlled substitution shall be allowed. Controlled substitutions of sample units (households or persons) shall be allowed, if one of the situations listed in paragraph 1 arises, or if the sample unit has not been reached after three attempts for contact.

3 Procedures shall be followed to ensure that the process of substitution is controlled to the maximum extent possible. Such procedures shall include using a design which ensures that the selected substitutes closely match the persons they replace in terms of their significant characteristics.

4 The set of sample persons for substitution shall be defined prior to data collection. There shall be no substitution with persons not belonging to that set.

1 The collection of data shall be spread over at least 3 months including at least 1 month in the period from September to December.

2 Proxy answers shall be allowed only in cases where the respondent is unable to answer for one of the following reasons: (a) suffering from long-term cognitive impairment; (b) suffering from long-term severe debilitation; (c) suffering from a long-term sensory impairment that prevents the interaction between interviewer and interviewee; (d) in hospital, health or social care facility for the entire period of the fieldwork.

3 For variables listed in Annex IV, Eurostat shall use only information directly collected from the respondent for the computation of the related indicators. Member States shall either transmit to Eurostat only that information directly collected from a respondent or information directly collected from a respondent in combination with information collected indirectly.

1 Imputation, calibration or weighting shall be applied to the data where necessary.

2 Imputation shall be used to adjust only for item non-response.

3 Methods of statistical imputation shall be applied where non-response exceeds 5 % with regard to the key variables set out in Annex V for which information is missing, invalid or inconsistent.

4 The reference population for weighting shall be the real or estimated population usually residing in private households.

5 Weighting factors shall be calculated to take into account the unit’s probability of selection, non-response, and, as appropriate, adjustment of the sample to external data relating to the distribution of persons in the target population.

6 The adjustment of the sample to external data shall be done with respect to the distribution of persons in the target population according to sex and age groups.

Member States shall transmit to the Commission (Eurostat) a data set with pre-checked microdata that comply with the characteristics of the variables specified in Annex II to this Regulation, including appropriate weights, using the statistical data and metadata exchange standards set by the Commission (Eurostat) and the single entry point.

1 Quality reports by Member States shall comply with the detailed arrangements and content requirements set out in Annex VI.

2 Member States shall transmit the quality-related reference metadata required by this Regulation to the Commission (Eurostat), using the statistical data and metadata exchange standards. They shall send the metadata through the single entry point.

This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.