The Public Health Watch
On the Public Health Watch and interpretation of figures
-Automatic translation
More on the Public Health Watch
The Public Health Watch monitors adult health behaviour and well-being and the development of the leading health determinants. Many of the measurements published in this dashboard have previously been published in Public Health Indicators and/or in Talnabrunnur, the Directorate of Health's newsletter on health information.
The data is based on regular online surveys conducted by Gallup for the Directorate of Health (monthly monitoring and annual municipal surveys). A random sample from the Gallup attitude group is taken monthly for 18 years and older. If it is impossible to take a large enough sample for each health district, a random sample is taken from the national registry within that district. About 800 participants are selected monthly, and the participation rate has been over 50% in the past few years, resulting in approximately 5,000 responses annually in the last few years. In addition, the analyses published in the dashboard are based on the responses of over 5,000 individuals annually to questions from the Gallup municipal surveys.
Interpretation of results
When interpreting the Public Health Watch results, it should be remembered that it is a sampling survey. Sampling surveys may show a fluctuation, as the results do not include measurements of the whole population. There may also be a systematic error, for example, if those who refuse to participate are somewhat different from those who participate. It should be noted that the questionnaire is only in Icelandic, and therefore, the Public Health Watch only cover those who can answer the questionnaire in Icelandic.
In the Public Health Watch, data is weighed to reflect the age and gender composition of the population. The results are shown with a 95% confidence limit to indicate the measurement's uncertainty. The size of the sample affects the confidence interval.
An example of interpretation: If the percentage was 8.0% and the confidence interval +/-1.3%, then it can be stated with 95 % confidence that the rate in a population is between 6.7% (8.0-1.3) and 9.3% (8.0+1.3).
Service provider
Directorate of Health