The Children's Environmental Health Survey is carried out in collaboration between the Institute of Environmental Medicine at Karolinska Institutet and the Statistics Sweden, on behalf of the Public Health Agency of Sweden.

The questionnaire concerned the health and environments of children in three age groups: 8 months, 4 years, and the 12 years. The questionnaire in the Children's environmental health survey 2003 was sent to 40,000 children's parents. The response rate was about 70%.

The questions were in most cases answered by the children’s parents, but some of the questions were directly asked of children in 12-year-old group.

In addition to the study in 2003, a second study was carried out in 2011, where some of the children from 2003 were invited to participate.

Purpose:
The aim was to chart how environmental factors like air pollution, noise and indoor environment effects the health of children and adolescents.

Language

Swedish

Method and outcome

Unit of analysis

Individual

Population

Children, aged 8 months, 4 years and 12 years, born in Sweden or have been resident in Sweden for at least five years.

Time Method

Cross-section

Longitudinal

Sampling procedure

Probability

I grundurvalet ingick lika många barn i varje län, 240 i varje åldersgrupp. För 8-månadersbarnen utökades urvalet till ca 310 för att korrigera smärre felaktigheter i urvalsdragningen. I tio län gjordes även ett tilläggsurval på ungefär 100–2 500 barn
per åldersgrupp. Det totala urvalet utgjorde i genomsnitt ca 13 procent av målbefolkningen. Störst andel utgjorde det i Hallands län (42 procent) och lägst i Skånes län (5 procent). Barnen valdes slumpvis från registret över totalbefolkningen hos Statistiska centralbyrån (SCB).

Time period(s) investigated

2003-02 – 2004-04

Response rate/participation rate

8 månader: 75%
4 år: 70%
12 år: 68%

Data format / data structure

Numeric

Data collection

Mode of collection: Self-administered questionnaire: paper
Time period(s) for data collection: 2003-02 – 2004-04
Data collector: Statistics Sweden
Source of the data: Registers/Records/Accounts: Administrative, Population group, Registers/Records/Accounts

Geographic coverage

Geographic spread

Geographic location: Sweden

Lowest geographic unit

County (NUTS 3)

Highest geographic unit

Country

Administrative information

Responsible department/unit

Institute of Environmental Medicine

Topic and keywords

Research area

Medical and health sciences (Standard för svensk indelning av forskningsämnen 2011)

Health sciences (Standard för svensk indelning av forskningsämnen 2011)

Occupational health and environmental health (Standard för svensk indelning av forskningsämnen 2011)

Health (CESSDA Topic Classification)

Keywords

Housing, Family environment, Smoking, Physical activities, Television viewing, Obesity, Public health, Mental health, Natural environment, Demography, Passive smoking, Epidemiologic studies, Respiratory tract diseases, Exercise, Population surveillance, Hearing loss, Socioeconomic factors, Risk factors, Overweight, Diet, Asthma, Noise, Surveys and questionnaires, Air pollution, Nicotiana, Hypersensitivity, Parks, Schools, Housing conditions, Sun protection, Socio-economic status, Green belt areas, Scania, Epihealth, Epihealth_skåne

Publications