Healthy Ireland Survey Launch 2025
probably get going now. Um I’m absolutely delighted to welcome you all to the launch of the Healthy Ireland survey 2025 which is actually also marks the 10th year. The first survey was published in 2015. So um momentous occasion here for us all. Um, just to introduce myself, I’m Fiona Manzer and I work on the Healthy Ireland research side here in the Department of Health. Absolutely brilliant to see everyone who’s been able to make it here in person. You’re all very welcome. And also to note that this is a hybrid event. It’s also going out on our YouTube channel and so on. So, this does mean that the event is being recorded. So, just to make sure that everyone’s aware of that. Before we start today, just a few housekeeping items. The fire exits are there and in through the doors that you came in via. Um we’re hoping that won’t be necessary, but should the fire alarm go off, we typically have to trek across to the um nearest corner of Marian Square. That’s the assembly point. So just in case that happens, there you go. Uh teas, coffees, and snacks are available over there, including gluten-free. Please feel free to help yourself. Um and just to note the format for today’s event. Um, so we will have speeches from our minister for state for public health, well-being, and the national drug strategy. Um, and that’s a a pre-recorded speech. Then we’ll have a speech from our chief medical officer. And finally, um, our partners in Ipsos BNA will present the main findings. And we’ll then move on to a Q&A. Now, we’re changing the format slightly this year. You’ll notice that there’s a funky QR code in the corner of the screen. So, if you scan those, that will bring you to Mentometer and you can submit any questions you want at any time as they occur to you and we’ll cue them up and we’ll try and answer as many of the hoods possible in the time that we have for the Q&A. If there are any that we don’t get to, those can be resubmitted by email um either to healthy Ireland.gov.ie or to the press office at health.gov.ie depending on whether you’re a media or um researcher or so on. And uh we’ll pop those emails up on the screen towards the end as well. So um just to say um it’s been absolutely brilliant to have 10 years of the survey particularly coinciding with the renewal of our healthy Ireland framework supporting our health and wellbeing has never been more important quitting smoking drinking less exercising more eating healthily with reference to this year’s survey getting enough sleep and our work in healthy Ireland is providing information as to how to make those positive changes and to protect our health and the survey is a vital part of that but it also plays a key role in monitoring other areas of our health services such as GP, dental, allied health care professional, hospital utilization. This year survey is taking an in-depth look at contraception and at menopause. We’ve run period dignity in previous years. Um we’re supporting the women’s health task force and lots of other areas of work. So without further ado, I’m very pleased to introduce a pre-recorded introduction from our Minister of State for Public Health Well-being and the National Drug Strategy, Jennifer Meno Connor, TD. Good morning everyone and welcome to the launch of our latest healthy Ireland survey. These data help us to identify trends in population behaviors and in response to develop policies that support us all to enjoy better health and well-being. Every year, the survey illustrates how healthy Ireland and other departmental policy initiatives are having a positive effect, but also where additional steps may be needed. For example, smoking rates have remained broadly unchanged since 2019 at approximately 17%. We want to get this figure to zero. So, we are continually developing initiatives that support people to quit and indeed to prevent them starting at all. These include raising the minimum legal sale of tobacco products to 21 years from February 2028 and making us the first EU member state to do so. We have banned the sale of ecigarettes or vapes to under 18s. And we have recently banned the sale of tobacco and ecigarettes from vending machines. And we will introduce new retail licenses measures from next February. We’re also investing in a range of supports for both prevention and for quitting. Funding for the HSSE’s quit program is increasing to almost three million in 2025 and we have doubled the number of stop smoking clinics in recent years and have recruited 48 new stop smoking advisors since 2022. The Solangeare Healthy Communities program which includes supports for quitting and other healthy living initiatives have been expanded to 24 areas in 2025. There are now record numbers of people accessing or quit services and accessing free nicotine replacement therapy. We’re also supporting vaping prevention campaigns for young people. Looking at alcohol figures, it’s heartening to see a drop in the number of people who have consumed alcohol in the previous 12 months. However, more than one quarter of the population are still reporting binge drinking and one in five are at risk of hazardous drinking. It is essential that we continue to reduce the harm that alcohol and drugs can cause in our society. We’re making good progress by regulating advertising, sponsorship, retail displays of alcohol, and other alcohol promotions, as well as introducing minimum unit pricing. You will hear the full survey results shortly. So, I’d like to finish up by thanking everyone involved in delivering it. We’re very grateful to our partners in EPSOS BNA for delivering the survey and to our colleagues in the department of health and in the advisory group for managing and overseeing it. I also want to thank the HSC and colleagues across government and other state agencies who have over the years contributed questions and modules for the survey or participated in its oversight. But most importantly, I thank everyone who took part in the survey, making it such a valuable resource. Learning about factors affecting our population is what helps us to develop the policies and services that will support us all to live healthier lives. Thank you all. So many thanks to the minister for that uh welcoming speech. So, with many thanks, I’d now like to introduce our chief medical officer, Professor Mary Han. Thank you, Fiona. A very warm welcome to everyone um today um on a nice so far dry Friday. I’m delighted to be here today to launch the 2025 Healthy Ireland survey. more than 7,500 uh people across the um island the across Ireland participated giving us really very comprehensive insights into the current state of our population’s health and indeed their access to health care services. This information provides a very valuable picture highlighting what is working well but also where additional work needs to take place. And I think the fact that we have data for 10 years is really helpful because when it comes to public health policy and interventions, it really is a long game, not something that you see um some an introduction today having an effect in six or 12 months. So I think these yearly surveys are absolutely essential in um informing us on the path forward. Kieran will go through the results in detail shortly, but I’d like to um touch on a few key points and the policies and initiatives uh shaping them. In 20 uh 25, I’m happy to report that 82% of us report good or very good health, showing a slight increase uh over the past two years. And it’s worth noting that our life expectancy now is nearly 83 years. So about 84 and a half for women and 81 for men and it’s the seventh highest in Europe. Fewer older uh adults in Ireland report bad or very bad health and fewer have chronic diseases compared to the EU average. We’ve also seen the proportion of over 75s reporting good or very good health increased increasing by 9 percentage points since 2015 which is incredible. That’s an encouraging figure uh given our growing and our aging population. We’ve also seen increases in health service utilization. Four out of five pe people will have reported seeing a GP in the past 12 months. And on average um a person an individual uh will visit a GP about four times a year um at the age of 15 or older. Given that our population has increased in size by about 800,000 uh since uh 2015, it is clear that we are enabling more people to see their local GPS when they need to. We’re also seeing increasing numbers of GPS and just to note there’s about 1,200 GPS in training in Ireland at the moment which is nearly a doubling of numbers in recent years. There’s an expansion of the chronic disease management program. This is really key where GPS provide chronic disease management in the community near where the patient um lives and uh is uh very happy to uh access a lot of the local uh services. Plans are well advanced for a common condition service which will uh which will be accessible through local communityarmacies where an individual with a common condition can seek care um and treatment for in their localarmacies. Moreover, eligibility for free GP visit cards was expanded in 2023, removing cost barriers to GP access for a large group of people. The government continues to expand and support access to oral health care uh services across the life course through the implementation of the national oral health policy smile August launcher. I welcome the results showing that Ireland’s dental attendance patterns align and in many cases exceed those of other European countries with 39% of the population attending a dentist annually. This builds on findings from the survey in 2020 which showed that 40% of children age under 18 visited a dentist in the last year. All of these measures are examples of key preventative measures designed to improve access to primary health care for our growing population based on need and not on the ability to pay. In line with the principles of slaughter care, they also help to uh bring us closer to our goal of providing timely quality treatment for all as close to home as possible. This year’s survey included a module on carers re representing um that key 14% of the population who provide regular unpaid personal help to a friend or family member with a long-term health uh problem or disability or illness. And most of us in this room will know uh somebody who is a carer or indeed have been or are carers themselves. And uh we certainly recognize the invaluable role of the family carers play in supporting their loved ones to live with dignity and independence and homes and communities of their own choice for as long as possible. And just to acknowledge uh the work of of carers on on behalf myself and the department to support family cares. program for government commits to improving access to training and restite and fully funding the carers guarantee helping to ensure equitable access to career support no matter where in Ireland you live. For the first time the survey includes a a module focusing on women’s experience with menopause and related symptoms. New supports for menopause have been driven by our women’s health task force and by the two women’s health action plans. It is vital that we talk about pmenopause and menopause in terms of women’s lived experience. It’s it it’s it’s a normal part of our lives and we should be able to speak about it openly openly and support those that are going through it. We are now providing wide-ranging supports to women women experienced menopause symptoms. These include six public menopause clinics and since June this year, the provision of free hormone replacement therapy. The survey results show that of women accessing HRT for symptom relief, 93% view it as either very or somewhat effective. supports also uh include information campaigns, the workplace framework and training courses and resources for GPS to wear aware to raise awareness of menopause and the debilitating symptoms that often accompany them. Another women’s health initiative is the free contraception scheme. Um the uh free con contraception scheme is an example of the progress in the area of women’s health and is open to women and girls aged between 17 and 35 with the program for government committed to further expansion within the lifetime of this government. The demand for this scheme is reflected in the survey with more than onethird of respondents currently using a form of contraception or family planning raising to almost uh three in five of those aged between 18 and 34. Approximately 204,000 people have accessed this scheme through primary care in 2024 with 86% of women aged between 18 and 24 being aware of it and half of the women in this uh cohort accessing it. Minister Mano Connor spoke earlier about smoking, vaping, and alcohol use. Many of these figures are encouraging and we’re going in the right direction. I am however concerned about the use of ecigarettes uh ecigarettes as is still at 8% and vaping remains very popular among young people in particular. Ireland has had a long uh track record as being a world leader leader in tackling the use of tobacco products and we have taken significant strides in recent years. Let us continue this momentum as we aim towards a tobaccof free Ireland. The areas I’ve touched on here are just a few highlights of a very comprehensive report. I wish to thank sincerely our colleagues in Ipsos BNA for all of their hard work in conducting the survey on our behalf and also um my colleagues in the department. I would like to thank the advisory group and everyone across the department in HSSE who contribute uh questions for the survey reviewed the result and helped to build uh the comprehensive 10-year data set that we have today. Finally, a word of thanks to the many people who agreed to uh be interviewed for the survey. Without them, this would not be possible. Kieran Olirri will now present more detailed anal analysis of the findings and I would urge you all to take a copy of the report or access the results online and spend um time looking at the wealth of information kindly provided for um by our survey pres participants. Thank you very much. Okay, good morning everyone. Uh it’s a privilege to again uh to present the findings from the latest wave of the healthy Ireland survey uh for 2025. It’s the 10th year uh that I’ve stood up presenting these findings. Um and what we can see from this latest wave where we look back quite a bit over the past 10 waves. Um it gives us very much an up-to-date picture of where we’re at and what Ireland’s health and health and health behaviors and crucially I suppose uh a decade long view of uh how far we’ve come and where we must go next uh particularly over the past decade when so much has changed and that’s very much reflected uh in the data that we’ve collected. Uh this year’s survey uh was conducted by ourselves Ipsos BNA between last November and April of this year consistent with all previous waves in terms of that time period. It’s a nationally representative sample of about 7 and a half thousand people aed 15 and plus. Uh and it remains a cornerstone of the healthy Ireland framework and outcomes framework and the objective of the survey I guess is to provide robust evidence to inform policy to inform service design and also crucially public engagement. The story that I think I’m going to tell today hopefully reflects progress, steady, sustained progress, particularly on some of those behaviors that cause us the greatest harm. Smoking prevalence is down since 2015. Harmful and frequent alcohol use is also down compared with a decade ago. At the same time, as we do each year, this year broadens the lens on health across the life course with new depths on menopause, contraception, and the lived realities of caring areas where good policy and accessible services can and are easing real burdens and improving quality of life. Starting firstly with a view of overall health. In 2025, 82% of people report their health as good or very good. Slightly higher than last year, but still below the 2019 preandemic high. A re-evaluation of our health perspectives perhaps. Gender difference are minimal overall, but age differences are more pronounced. As expected, younger adults report the highest levels of good health and those aged 75 and older the lowest. However, that said, it’s worth noting the positive shift among older adults over the decade. Good and very good health amongst those aged 75 plus has risen nine points since 2015. Very much a key consideration in our continued aging society. Smoking. The long run trend very much continues in the right direction. In 2015, 23% of the population smoked. Today, it’s 17%. 13% doing so daily, 4% doing so occasionally. That of course is meaningful progress at population level. But the devil of course as always of these things is in the detail. Men remain much more likely to smoke than women, but both have declined since 2015. The highest smoking prevalence continues to be among those aged 25 to 34. Um, and although it’s about 10 points lower than it was 10 years ago, it still remains the critical target group for prevention, cessation, and tobacco control. initiation of smoking, which we’ve started to measure over the past few years, it very much remains clustered in late adolescence. On average, people have their first cigarette at 16 and transition to daily smoking at around 18 with men reporting slightly earlier than women. The social gradient is also very clear, as it has been throughout the survey series. Smoking is higher among those with a leaving C or lower levels of education compared to those with higher levels of education. That gap has persisted consistently over the past decade even as prevalence has fall fallen across all of these groups. Quitting of course remains of course an opportunity but it’s also a significant challenge. Almost one in three people are ex-smokers marginally up from 20 from about 28% in 2015. And among current smokers 46% have attempted to quit in the past year. This is very similar to 2015 and emphasizes really the scale of the quitting challenge that many people face today. 30% of smokers are trying to quit uh or actively planning to do so and but with the appetite to stop uh and the appetite to stop is very much there. The policy lever of course is to make proven supports the easy default choice especially for young young adults and in settings where tobacco use remains normalized. On health outcomes, the gap between those who have smoked and those who have never smoked in self-reported health and reporting long-standing illnesses is very much there and has persisted throughout. Daily smokers are least likely to report good or very good health. And while this gradient is well known, it remains a powerful reminder of the importance of reducing smoking rates. Ecigarette use stable in ve very much in headline terms over the period that we’ve measured it over the past few years with 8% of the population using ecigarettes daily or occasionally and consistently about threequarters of the population have never tried one. The profile however again as we dig under this this uh the headline figure is where the story is. Among 15 to 24 year olds, 18% use ecigarettes daily or occasionally. And within that group, usage has increased among young women over the past year, while it’s declined amongst young men. Among daily smokers, ecigarette use has actually fallen six points since 2023 down to 18%. And very much raises questions about the role of ecigarettes in sessation and the risk of uptake among young people who’ve never smoked. Among never smokers overall, 3% use ecigarettes, but this rises to 8% amongst never smokers aged 15 to 24. And again, with that notable gender gap, women 11%, men 4%. For the first time this year, we take a look more detail at ecigarettes and we look at device types and flavors and very much they follow a pattern that we perhaps could have predicted. Uh, and very much a difference across the age group. Younger users much more likely to use disposable devices and fruit flavors. Older users tend towards more towards refillable devices and tobacco and menthol flavors. And the buying patterns very much reflect the easy retail availability of these devices. Specialist shops to the four and convenience and fourcourt retailers very much the common sources through which people um obtain these. So the policy implications of this are clear. We of course need to protect our children and young people from nicotine initiation, including the regulation of ecigarettes, while also ensuring that adult smokers who choose ecigarettes as sessation aids get structured evidence-based support and help them transition off nicotine altogether. This year we also look at nicotine pouches. Usage remains low overall. We see about 1% in the population overall saying they use nicotine pouches. But we can see the use is very much centered on particular groups. 5% amongst young men aged 15 to 24 h currently using nicotine pouches. Very much continued surveillance needed in that area. Moving on to alcohol use. Alcohol of course occupies very much a deep cultural space in Ireland and for us all. But the trends over the past decade show a gradually healthier and changing picture. In 2015, we saw that 76% uh of al of of adults reported drinking in the past 12 months, down to 71% today. Drinking at least weekly also down 41 down to 35. And multiple times per week, drinking also down 24 down to 20. We also see again digging under this we look at age groups. We can see very much notable age shifts. A decade ago, it was the those aged 25 to 34 who had the highest pass year drinking. We’ve seen a big decline there, though. And today, it’s 15 to 24 year olds who report the highest, while 25 to 34 year olds amongst the lowest groups in terms of alcohol consumption. Men of course remain more likely to than women to drink across all frequencies and amongst drinkers, men more likely to drink more often than women. Binge drinking, which is on the chart in behind me here. Binge drinking is defined for the purposes of the survey as consuming six or more standard drinks on a typical drinking occasion. This has fallen since 2015. 30% that gray line there back in 2015, 26% uh today. But again, we can see the patterns matter. Look at those gender differences. Men much more likely than women to binge drink. 40% versus 12. Digging in, we bring introduce age into the equation. We can see men aged 15 to 24 very much the highest binge rate. Uh 51% of men aed 15 to 24 uh binge drinking. A shift from 2015 when it was men aed 25 to 34 which was the problem. Across the decade binge rates have very much decreased amongst men and women aged under 45 and most strongly amongst men aed 25 to 34. They’ve edged up for some of the older male cohorts. H and we can also very much see that employment and student status very much correlates with higher binge rates, retirees and those uh with home duties much more lower. For the first time this year, we dug into a different aspect of this. So we looked at non-alcoholic alternatives such as 0% beer and wine. One in four of the population now report drinking these 25%. Uh we ask people why they’re choosing to drink these. So the top reasons very much practical and health oriented driving home reducing alcohol consumption for health and avoiding hangovers. Younger adults and women very much likely to site some of those health motives. H and men more likely to site the need to drive home as availability and quality of no alcohol options improve. The opportunity is very much there to embed them in environments and occasions when heavy drinking has come very much the norm. Menopause a new section on the survey this year. So ve so for the first time we looked we had a very much in-depth module on menopause to identify and recognize the profound effects it has on daily life work and well-being. Um looking overall across the population amongst women aged 18 plus 8% report being in permenopause 7% in menopause transition and 28% postmenopause. The peak year is very much as you’d expect. Four in 10 women aged between 45 and 49 report that they’re in permenopause and over a third of those in their early 50s h report being in menopause transition. However, the story is consistent. Significant proportions in all cases are reporting negative experiences. As you can see, symptoms are very common but patterns differ by where by the stage. Perry menopause very much associated with higher prevalence of brain fog, joint pain, headaches, fatigue. The transition phase very much marked by elevated mood symptoms, brain fog and palpitations. We see some we see some improvements in terms of symptom reporting in postmenopause, but many women continuing to report experience experience and report ongoing uh effects. The frequency and the impact of these symptoms very much vary. 30% of women experiencing menopause symptoms say they are constant. Half say they are occasional. Among those with symptoms, 13% report severe impacts on daily life and 33% report moderate impacts with those in perry menopause more likely to report more moderate impacts. Work and participation uh very much affected. Among permenopausal women, two out of five say they’re less able to pay attention and work at least occasionally. Social participation also suffering. A quarter say they’ve missed social events and the same proportion saying they’ve missed sport activities or hobbies at least occasionally due to symptoms. That said, support seeking is active. Among permenopausal women, 69% say they have sought medical support and many have consulted multiple information sources, friends, official websites such as the HSSE and social media. Medication use very much reflects a symptom burden. 51% in permenopause have taken medication and among those with constant symptoms 81% do so. Of those taking medication, 76% report using HRT. And if we dig down into that group, albeit the numbers get a little bit small, we can see 93% find it very or somewhat effective, but still a strong message. So the message is very clear coming out of the results of this section of the survey. Normalizing helpseeking, ensuring timely and easy access to evidencebased care including HRT and enabling workforce support, workplace supports can significantly uh reduce avoidable impacts on women’s lives. Moving on then to contraception. So this year’s survey, we’ve looked at contraception in the past h and we returned to it again uh this year and looked at in a slightly different way. Uh so it was a dedicated module on contraception within this wave uh with a particular focus uh on on the awareness and uptake of the free contraception scheme for women aed 17 to 35. What I found is that awareness of the free contraception scheme is very strong overall and very high among women and particularly amongst those aged 18 to 24 almost nine and 10 of whom say that they’re aware at least aware of this scheme. Uptake among eligible women is substantial. Half of women aged 18 to 25 and over a third of women aged 26 to 35 report using the scheme. We asked them but for issues that they might have experienced using the scheme and reported issues are relatively rare. From a policy perspective, what does this tell us? Well, it really shows that that it demonstrates that when financial and access barriers are reduced, people will use the services that are made available to them. Maintaining awareness, ensuring method choice and integrating contraception with broader sexual and reproductive health health care will certainly sustain and extend these gains. More broadly among contraception, overall 34% of adults say that they or their partner currently use contraception or a method of family planning. And usage of course is highest in the 18 to 44 age group, as you’d expect, uh with methods very much varying by age and life stage as reported today in the uh report we’re publishing. Moving on then to caring which tells a very very strong survey and it’s something we’ve been trending over the 10 years of the survey and we look at in a bit more depth uh in this year’s wave as we’ve done on some previous reports as well. So again what we try to do is highlight the invaluable contribution uh that carers are making. We can see that 14% of the population provide regular unpaid personal help to a family member or friend with a long-term illness, health problem or disability. Again, we can see that gray line rising pretty consistently uh over the over the years that we’ve done this survey. Risen from 9% uh back in 2015 and shows a gradual upward trajectory since that time. Very strong come out from this this chart as well. You can see that women are of course more likely than men to play this role. And we can particularly see the highest rates among women aed 45 to 64. And that’s a cohort that we kind of look at in a bit more detail in this year’s report. Many carers support one person, but nearly one in five care for multiple people. And almost one in four carers provide aroundthe-clock care for someone they live with. And notably, that’s a proportion that rise steeply in older age. Despite the time and effort that it takes uh playing this role, most carers say they can cope most of the time. However, there’s still important groups. 21% say they rarely or never get adequate breaks from their caring role. Uh and 11% say they can rarely they rarely or never cope with their caring role. And very much we can see that those who care for multiple people are less likely to say that they get regular breaks throughout the survey. But particularly important with this section is of course these are not merely figures. They’re lived realities. They very much identify opportunities for targeted relief for restbite for flexible services and support recognizing how care intersects with work finances and health. This year we also put a particular focus on midlife women carers. A key group women aged 35 to 54 who we can see from the survey disproportionately carry dual roles of caring for another adult as well as being a parent themselves. 18% of women aged 35 to 54 care for another family member or friend. 12% of the group overall are both a parent to a child age under 18 as well as being a carer to an adult. Importantly for this group, they are much more likely to be in paid employment. Threearters of them have a paid job alongside it than carers overall. And their weekly caring hours, while lower than carers overall, still averages at around 30 hours per week. And that’s in addition to their work and other family responsibilities that they have. What impact does it have? Well, their self-reported health, good health is comparable to women of the same age, but the prevalence of long-standing illnesses we can see is slightly higher. Health behaviors are very mixed. Smoking and ecigarette use very much similar to women of their same age. But what we can see is that midlife women carers uh more likely to drink um multiple times per week. About a quarter of them say they drink several times a week compared to about 18% of women other women of their own age. And among those who do drink, we can see 22% binge on the typical uh drinking occasion compared to 17% of all women of their age. Sleep very much stands out as a pressure point for this group. Only 52% report that they’re getting good or very good sleep quality compared to about twothirds of women of the same age. And very much we can see they sleep fewer hours on average. So again as it does you know in terms of some of the key findings for the menopause section it very much underscores the importance of designing supports that reflect the realities of managing all this managing work managing parenting and managing care and how the three intersect. Flexible restbite pure supports and employer policies all play particular roles in this space. Okay to wrap it up. So what we see then a decade of healthy Ireland data very much shows that some of the persistent evidenceinformed policy that’s been introduced since the start of this survey very much works. Smoking is down 23 to 17. Harmful and frequent patterns of alcohol use down. Those changes haven’t happened by accident in society. They reflect everything that’s been done. legislation, pricing, availability, enforcement, uh trusted public information, and accessible services, making those healthy choices uh more achievable. But the data does also show where health is lived, where it’s most fragile, and where policy could be more effective. We can see women experiencing menopause, they are seeking help and using medication when appropriate, and finding HRT effective. Timely access and clear information remain crucial in this space. Contraception usage is widespread and we can see from the free contraception scheme we can see that when cost barriers are removed uptake is strong and the issues experienced by people are rare. We’ve also more work to do for tobacco. We need to continue reducing initiation in adolescence and young adulthood and strengthening some of that sessation support for those who do smoke. Also, of course, ensuring that nicotine products of all types are regulated effectively to protect young people and while supporting adult smokers to quit for good. For alcohol, we need to sustain the the the gains and sort of reduce frequent use, the reductions in binge drinking while targeting some of those high-risk edges, particularly young adults, the that 18 to 24 age group in particular. and also particularly attention towards some of the we’ve seen some increase more recently in young women in terms of harmful consumption levels for some of those newer areas that we’ve looked at caring menopause contraception recognizing that good policy uh supports uh supports well that those is intended to support accessible information employer and education policies accommodating real lives real lived experiences and responsive uh pathways to meet the people where they need it methodologically we continue with the survey. Uh we’re in field uh for the next wave of the survey. Uh so we’re looking to of course maintain that robust long-term trend. Whereas this year we looked at things like menopause, contraception and caring. Next year we’re taking a focus uh and the survey that’s in field at the moment looking at areas such as diet and nutrition, dental hygiene, sun protection, and sunbed usage. Overall, what this tells us emphatically is that when progress that progress is possible and some of those key challenges that when we looked at at the start of the survey when it was initiated back in 2015, we’ve seen real key progress there, particularly smoking and alcohol. It also tells us where progress has to accelerate protecting young people from nicotine and harms alcohol, supporting carers, and ensuring menopause care is appropriate, informed, timely, and effective. as well of course maintaining access and choice and contraception. Of course, the Healthy Ireland survey whilst there’s lots of data, it’s not just data. It’s all about action. It’s how we use that data and how we use the information and findings to inform policy to shape some of those interventions and empower individuals to make the healthier choices. So, the next step is translating some of those insights into improvements in the nation’s health. Thank you. Thank you so much Kieran and all your colleagues in Ipsos BNA who’ve been helping to make this happen over the past 10 years. Um it’s it’s been really brilliant to see all that progress over the last 10 years and to have um detailed data describing all of that. So, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everybody and also to everyone who agreed to be interviewed and so on for um all everything that we’ve we’ve achieved with the survey since 2015. I’d also like to say a huge thank you to our colleagues in the CMO division and in the stat stats and analytics division here, plus our healthy Ireland um survey advisory group and of course to colleagues in the press office who’ve made all this happen so seamlessly this morning. So, many many thanks to all of you. Um, a quick update to researchers and policy makers looking to access the data. As part of our commitment to publishing open data, we will be updating 40 statistical tables on the cso’s data website, PX data, I think it is, um, this morning at 11:00. So, have fun. Um, the questionnaire will also be available on our Healthy Ireland survey documents page. So there be an introductory page that has a summary of this year’s survey and so on, but also back a bit in the main website. You can get to a documents page which basically has the floor. So many thanks to everyone who submitted some questions. I’m just going to um read them out and we will direct those to Kieran andor the CMO as as appropriate. So first one we have here, disposable vapes, especially fruity flavors are increasingly popular amongst the young. New taxation did not focus on this. What actions would you advocate taking or are being taken to tackle this problem? Yeah, this this is obviously a concern. Um so there are I suppose a number of ways of um that we’re approaching it. First of all, um funding has been given to the HSSE to um start which has started uh new information um uh package for particularly parents, guardians um and teachers in school. Uh take a deep breath. You may have heard it already on um media, whatever type of media you access. uh really empowering giving um parents, teachers, guardians um uh greater in-depth knowledge of how to um address the issue of vaping uh with children uh with uh children and adolesccents. Uh I think the the you probably read my mind when it comes to vaping. Um there’s a uh uh two bills in advanced draft. one of which is um the single-use vape um that there will be a ban on that that is near completion. And then the second bill uh which is the amendment on the nicotine and um uh tobacco and nicotine um uh legislation is on uh flavors and colorings um and that’s near completion. So as always I think that multi-pronged approach to public health intervention is really really important. Um and it’s something that Minister Manain Oconor and Minister Carl McNeel are passionate about uh dealing with the issue of vaping. So legislation, education, training of parents highlighting as an issue is is the approach we’re taking um and that will continue. Thanks very much, Mary. Kieran, I think the next one’s for you. Um, why are there two figures for binge drinking? There’s multiple measurements of harmful and hazardous drinking in the survey. Uh, because of various different data and information needs. Uh, so we have the overall binge drinking measurement, which is uh drinking six or more standard drinks, so three pints of beer uh on a um on on a typical drinking occasion. Uh, so that’s one measurements there. And then there’s also two measurements uh of the audit scoring for hazardous or harmful drinking which I think the questioner might be referring to. Uh so we’ve two measure we’ve a shortened scale and the full scale on that. So that’s just reflecting various needs in terms of uh some of the data coming out from the survey. So I’ll accept it is it is complex when you’re reading through the data. uh but I suppose the key thing coming from it is where we can trend it is that they are all trending downwards uh in terms of binge drinking and also hazardous and harmful drinking where we have measured that before. Thanks very much Kieran. Um so next one I think this one’s for you as well Mary. Um, with the stalling in the decline of smoking at 17%, do we need to look at bold policies to prevent and reduce smoking, for example, the smoke three generation policy being introduced in the Moldives and in the UK? Um, you know, as I mentioned in my talk, Ireland has always been a leader in tobacco uh control and we will continue to do that. Uh the minister mentioned in her speech the introduction of a banning on sale of tobacco in uh to uh under 21 year olds which will take effect in 2028. We’re the first country in the EU that will do that. Um that’s the approach we’ve taken. Um there again it’s a multi-pronged approach um giving people access to uh nicotine replacement therapy hssequit um.ie i.e. another resource um and continue uh I suppose amending the tobacco um and alcohol the pack tobacco and nicotine in inhalation uh product bill um and add to that consist consistently. We haven’t take the same approach by by the UK but we are looking at what uh they’re doing very closely and see how uh how they’re doing on that approach. Thanks very much, Mary. This one’s for Kieran. Um, is there any insights or do we have any insights into why we’re sleeping less than um than in 2019? I don’t know. I I I can only hypothesize on this, but um we don’t ask people we ask people to rate the quality of sleep, the amount of sleep. We don’t like some of the factors that might be affecting it, which of course is what’s going to inform that. Uh so, one could suspect that our lives have perhaps changed quite a lot since 2019. Perhaps lives are getting more stressful in lots of ways and could be impacting uh the the way in which you know our quality of sleep and so on and obviously the last few years have been full of various stresses um you exter within Ireland external to Ireland as well and perhaps that’s linking through in terms of causing more sleepless nights and reducing uh sleep quality for for cohorts of the population. Thanks Kieran. for Mary. Um, are you concerned about menopause stats? 40% of women in perry menopause says say that it affects their attention at work and 27% report missing out on social activities. Um, free HRT alone may not entirely help this. Um, are there other solutions? Yeah. Well, I mean, firstly, as a woman, I’m extremely proud that we have uh put in so much in women’s health in this survey. um it gives us hugely valuable information. I think like any uh condition it’s not just about giving a tablet. It’s about um educating um the person the woman herself on on the symptoms that they may experience um about um educating families and friends. um and in particular uh education in the workplace, heightened awareness of menopause and the and and the supports that a woman may require during that period of her life. Access to health care. Um G GPS, practice nurses are usually the first point of call. I think that’s really important that they can discuss it and you know feel that they’re one of many people who who who can experience this um and that there are support supports there um such as HRT but also if um further intervention is required to use one of the uh six hubs but it’s never ever just about taking a tablet. It’s about a holistic approach to uh women’s health and an acknowledgement, families and friends, our our our male work colleagues uh that these are real symptoms and that supports are needed within the workplace uh so that uh people can um really work in a a very healthy environment. So I I that that’s what I feel passionate about. But I do um really acknowledge the uh support of um A+ in in um uh adding these questions and it’s the start of and we’ll get more and more information on that and do more and more policy information interventions uh if required. Thanks Mary and just to say that that particular um menopause module that we’re publishing today um was those questions were asked and the fieldwork was finished before the launch of the free HRT scheme. So we are very likely to run that module again in a few years to see whether we’re actually and no doubt we will see effects from um the the introduction of further measures as as time goes on. Right. Next question um for Kieran. Are there plans to roll data to provide regional andor county level data which would allow for greater geographic targeting? Uh it’s possible to do it. That’s up to individual researchers if they want to uh roll together data from multiple waves. Of course, a lot of the questions we ask are consistent across 10 years. We’ve got some questions there now have been asked to almost 80,000 people um over the years of the study. So, it’s certainly possible uh to do that. Um so, you can do that. You can we we’ve county level data within it. It can be built uh through the data file uh that that’s available. We’re also looking then at some of the health regions then in the the current wave of the studies. We’re looking at trying to get a bit more granular data to be allow us to aggregate to precise health region uh uh level of of data. So we’re asking people for example on the current wave to provide their air code so we can identify exactly it is where in the country they live and we can assign them to the to the correct place. So that’ll give us a lot more power hopefully uh in the when we’re when we’re prod when we’re presenting these results next year. Thanks Karen. And another one for you now. Um, while midlife women carers report similar health to the general population, is the same pattern apparent in an older cohort? Are there indications that stress associated with caring roles may have long-term impacts? Uh, I’ll preface it by saying I haven’t looked specifically at that, but we one can only assume. We can see that the the the the the although carers feel that they get most of them feel they get adequate rest bite and and and breaks and they feel they can handle their caring roles. We do see that there are cohorts there who are feeling particular strain. One can assume that exists across the population. We also know for older carers is they’re more likely to provide aroundthe-clock care uh most likely probably for a spouse. Um and so so undoubtedly that will that that will play out but it’s certainly one uh worth worth worth looking at. We can’t look at every angle of the data in uh the report. Thanks very much Kieran. I think this one actually might be for me in that it’s a project management one. Will there be any insights into mamograms or breast cancer check in the future hi surveys? Well, just to be clear there, um, we send around a question to, um, departmental colleagues and they are free to put that across to the various sections of the HSSE and other health agencies that they work with as to what they would like to see in future um, HSSE, sorry, in future Healthy Ireland surveys. So um should the unit involved wish to um question people’s experiences of breast check or um any other in fact of the screening services they’d be more than welcome to submit some proposed questions or modules. So just just to say that that’s that’s the way that works behind the scenes. Um next question. Um I think this um this might be one for CMO. Um, raising the age of sale of tobacco products aims to solve one problem but doesn’t support the high use of nicotine products within the same age group. What needs to be done here to reduce high vape rates? I think we might have already answered some of those. Yeah, I think I I think I outlined that with upcoming um uh policy changes and um bills that will come that and obviously we we monitor the impact of those and a lot of the interventions don’t you may not see it within a year but as you can see from the data Kieran showed you can see it over the long term and I think that’s what’s important. Yeah. Yeah. Um so this is one for Kieran. Um, how does the survey ensure that underrepresented groups such as ethnic minorities, people with disabilities or those experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage are adequately included? Uh, well, we use a very rigorous methodology. So, I didn’t go into the methodological detail um because most people aren’t interested in it. Um, but yes, what we do is it’s a telephone-based survey. Uh, so we use that to ensure arguably telephone surveys give the broadest population coverage. uh currently uh when it looks to reach into uh when it looks to reach into some of those uh groups uh in particular. So uh we have a multi-stage selection process for the survey. So we do m we do you know we use a random digit dialing approach of mobile phone numbers. Mobile phones are pretty much universal in Ireland now. Um so everyone has the opportunity uh to participate. Um most disabilities uh wouldn’t be negatively impacted by that. Obviously there are some key challenges. Getting people to participate in the survey for somebody who might have hearing issues might be a challenge for who and for whom English isn’t their first language is obviously also a challenge. But any methodology we select uh will will face challenges such as those. So um so yeah so we we use the best practice uh method uh that that we can to maximize population coverage. We make multiple calls to phone numbers. Uh we chase down people as much as we can h to maximize the chances of taking part. And it’s not just, you know, when we look at people being underrepresented in surveys. It’s not just, of course, um the groups that initially come to mind, but it’s also people like young men, for example, younger people, uh people who particularly busy lifestyles. They’re very difficult to take part in surve in surveys and their key groups. If you look at, for example, those those midlife women carers, they’re spending 30 hours a week caring. They’re spending another whatever number of hours working and and family life as well. you know we we we we we invest considerable time into making sure for example those groups are heard from in particular on the survey as well. Thank you very much Kieran. So the next question is will there be any assessment on the impact of excessive phone use in young people social media and new AI technologies which may cause addictive behavior in future survey rounds. So um I think I’ll take that one because it’s a project management piece but um as I said before for the screening question um should the digital health people who are looking after digital health policy in the department think that it would be a great idea to add a module on online safety and so on we would be more than happy to consider it. We send out a request in the spring for the coming year’s um survey and then when we have submissions we convene an expert advisory group to look at them and to rank them in terms of order and merit and so on. So basically absolutely the survey would be open to considering that and um judging it along with all of the other modules that are submitted to us every year. So just yes the answer to that um so this is one for I think Kieran um given the hours of care that carers with very heavy caring burdens give is there a possibility of surveyed bias in your sample our experience of carers is that this cohort never gets restbite 61% seems high I don’t mean bias in terms of accessing these people like yeah I I kind comment on that in my pre the previous answer I gave is that yeah they are particularly time pressured group they are particularly busy group h their responsibilities are are are you know they’ve quite severe responsibilities in terms of care um so we we we try as much as we can to make sure their voices are heard in the survey as we do across all groups in the population uh but you know it it is it is it is you know there are groups that perhaps going to be maybe underrepresented I don’t know we’ve a measure on it. Um, so particular time pressure groups, you know, is always a challenge. Thank you very much, Kieran. Um, could future surveys look into what percentage of self-declared binge drinkers are seeking and receiving help to deal with and reduce or eliminate their alcohol dependency. Um, again, I think basically with that one, um, we’re we’re reliant on, um, the alcohol experts to submit questions to us. Now we have a wide range of experts at our disposal in that regard in that we work with both the tobacco and alcohol control unit and the drugs unit in the department and also with the HSSE health and well-being alcohol team. There are a number of interventions out there for um people with um alcohol dependency and um should those questions be submitted we can absolutely consider them and think about including them as stated previously. Um, final question now. Um, and this is one for Kieran. If you combine smoking and the use of ecigarettes, e-smoking, are more people now smoking than in 2015? Uh, I don’t want to answer that question off top of my head because I haven’t added those two numbers together. Um, there is an overlap between the two. uh we have people of course who who both smoke and use uh ecigarettes or vapes or whatever. Um so you obviously that overlap there so it’s not just a simple case of adding the two figures together but that’s certainly something we can we can run and I can certainly let the questioner know if they want to talk to us. Perfect. Thank you Kieran and thank you to everyone who submitted questions and a huge thank you to all colleagues um for supporting this event and a massive thank you to Kieran and Mary for um their presentations and of course to Minister Meno Connor as well for doing the pre-record. Um, one thing I forgot to mention earlier for any researchers in the audience who may be looking to access the data from this wave either through ISD, the Irish social science data archive or through um a more detailed individual agreement with the department um with the RMFs. The RMF should be available after Christmas and ISDA probably by um sometime between March and June next year I think in line with previous timetables. Um, so just to wrap up by saying thank you all so much for coming this morning. A huge big thank you to everyone who has helped set up this event and has helped to produce the survey and so on to all of our partners and stakeholders attending today. Um, Guram Mah Ger um thank you so much for helping to support our work, share our messages and help us to implement um the policy that then flows from the data. Um the Healthy Ireland survey is an incredibly valuable um information source for government, for our agencies, for the health system, and of course for researchers amongst others. Um huge thank you also finally to everyone who agreed to be interviewed for our survey. Without your information, we would be going nowhere. So your data is helping the health system and helping all of us to provide better services in the years going forward. I’ll now bring the formal section of this launch to a close. Please feel free to circulate, chat, and help yourselves to some refreshments. And thanks again to everyone online for tuning in. Goodbye.
The results from this years Healthy Ireland Survey
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