1. Health / disability variables in the LFS Item 2.10 of the agenda
Pascal WOLFF ESTAT-F5
18 June 2015
LAMAS Working Group

2. Outline Policy needs What is available so far
What Eurostat proposal consists in
Questions
18 June 2015
LAMAS Working Group

3. Policy needs UN Convention EU Strategy 2010-2020 Employment guidelines
Ratified by EU and 25 MS, NO, CH. Signed by all other ESS countries: obligation to ensure human rights/freedoms
Special article on statistics (obligations, barriers, …) in all aspects of life
EU Strategy
8 priority areas incl. employment and education
Statistics and monitoring, incl. Monitoring of Europe 2020 targets
Employment guidelines
Position of vulnerable groups on the Labour Market
18 June 2015
LAMAS Working Group

4. Data available at ESS level
EHSIS (1-shot, )
Health and barriers in 10 life domains
EHIS (5-6 years)
Health (of disabled)
SILC (annual)
Social inclusion, poverty (among disabled)
LFS ad-hoc module(s) (2002, 2011)
Employment and education
National sources (irregular)
Various topics (not harmonised)
18 June 2015
LAMAS Working Group

5. Eurostat proposal (1) Include SPH and GALI every 2 years Goal Mean
Compromise: ideally full MEHM (with LSHP)
Standardisation with SILC and other surveys
Goal
Identify people with disabilities to be able to compute labour market & education key indicators (not from SILC)
Not to count the number of disabled people
Mean
GALI is the critical variable but SPH is needed in order to introduce the topic
A common variable in all surveys but implementation adapted to each survey (issue of proxy, mode, etc..)
18 June 2015
LAMAS Working Group

6. Eurostat proposal (cont.)
Regular monitoring (vs. a module every 8-9 years)
Robustness of GALI
Right concepts
Scientific validation
Standardization (EHIS, SILC, core variable)
Lower burden but less detailed than a module
Trade-off: more detailed variables vs. periodicity
18 June 2015
LAMAS Working Group

7. Exchange of views (1) Why not another module (like in 2011)?
Need higher frequency
Criticisms from stakeholders on comparability of results
Criticisms about the 2011 module
Lack of input harmonisation
Filter question still used in some countries
Differences in wordings and order of questions
From 10 to 133 questions
Effect of survey mode (CATI, web) for disabled people
Average length of interview: from 18 s to 15 min !!!
18 June 2015
LAMAS Working Group

8. Share of people with at least one basic activity difficulty (%), Source 2011 LFS AHM
18 June 2015
LAMAS Working Group

9. Exchange of views (2)
No health information in LFS, focus on labour market
The intention is not to estimate the number of disabled people or people with health problems as such
Need to analyse situation of sub-populations such as disabled people (issues of access to labour market and education) -> therefore it is part of labour market analysis
Need already covered in SILC and/or EHIS?
No: Employment (ER) and education indicators (ESL, TEA) not available: LFS is the source
Core variables are not enough to compute those indicators
Main indicators on disability will continue to come from SILC (ex. Healthy Life Years)
18 June 2015
LAMAS Working Group

10. Exchange of views (3) Increase the burden (incl. sensitivity)?
Placeholders foreseen in the LFS revision
Balanced proposal (2 variables vs. a module)
No evidence about sensitivity of health/disability related questions: regularly implemented in several countries and in SILC
'Interferences' with other variables where disability is mentioned? (cf. EL question)
No interference, and in particular those other questions cannot be used as a filter
18 June 2015
LAMAS Working Group

11. Exchange of views (4) Need for further testing in LFS?
Agreement from Eurostat
Already implemented annually in LFS in EE, FR, NL, CH with some info also collected in LFS BE, DK, HU, UK, NO
First results of cognitive testing are positive for all versions tested -> looking for best possible solution
Too early to decide about the proposal?
The discussion is not about concrete model question(s) but about the introduction (importance) of the topic for LFS
DSS decision on health/disability as a topic in LFS in September
18 June 2015
LAMAS Working Group

12. Discussion Country representatives are kindly asked to:
Agree on the need to collect disability-related information in the LFS
Agree to collect SPH and GALI every second year
18 June 2015
LAMAS Working Group

13. Thank you for your attention
18 June 2015
LAMAS Working Group