AS MANY AS 10,000 homes across the country will soon be interviewed to capture of a snapshot of the nation’s health.

The voluntary Department of Health questionnaire will look at a range of key indicators that influence of health.

The results of the survey, known as Healthy Ireland, are expected to be available by late spring 2015, and will be used to guide future policies

A similar survey was conducted seven years ago under the title SLAN 2007.

“This new survey will give us a really up-to-date picture of the nation’s health, and will provide vital data,” Minister for Health Leo Varadkar said

The results will give us a baseline set of data telling us how healthy or unhealthy Ireland is. We can then use future surveys to assess whether or not our policies are working.

The interviews will take place in the coming weeks, and will ask households about their habits in areas such as nutrition, alcohol consumption, smoking, physical activity, weight management, and well-being.

In SLAN, 90% of respondents rated their quality of life as ‘very good’ or ‘good’, 88% rated their health as ‘excellent’, ‘very good’, or ‘good’.

One in ten had a chronic illness, the most common being asthma.

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