How to use annual health survey data to inform decisions

We’ll look at how healthcare decision-makers can use annual Health Survey data to inform HR policies, campaigns, products and changes to services. To do this, we’ll provide accessible England-wide key takeaways that you can easily refer to.

We’ll also explain what the annual Health Survey for English (HSE) is. While you might know what this is as a healthcare decision-maker, it can be good to gain a more thorough understanding of who is included in the survey. We also explain the different possible use cases for healthcare professionals. Finally, we’ll explore some additional healthcare surveys which can help you to look more closely at patient data that’s relevant to you.

The annual Health Survey for England explores the health and care of adults and children in England. Since 1991, the Survey has been used to find out about people’s general health and lifestyle choices. It combines questionnaire responses with other data like physical measurements, blood samples and blood pressure.

The HSE’s usefulness to healthcare organisations is wide-ranging. It’s often used by local healthcare providers as well as local authorities to deliver better healthcare and treatment options. It can also be a great reference for health campaigners and their advertising departments.

Not only that, but it can also be used by food, drink and pharmaceutical companies to better tailor their products to health-related concerns and trends. Finally, the UK government itself uses the HSE to plan health services and create health-related policies.

The survey is taken by people in England including adults of all ages and children between 2 and 15. Covering a wide range of patients, the HSE surveys people from different backgrounds, England regions and ethnicities. The HSE is designed to represent the target population who live in a private household in England. That’s why it can be a valuable source of data to healthcare providers. Some of its uses include:

Patients are typically interviewed in order to gain insights into their general health, including both mental and physical health, wellbeing and lifestyle behaviours. This is usually followed by a visit from a nurse who collects additional information such as what medicine someone is on, as well as their blood pressure. The survey itself is funded by the NHS England. 

The first part of the latest annual Health Survey for England was collected in 2022 and was published in June 2024. However, the full 2021 report is also available and was published in 2023. In this article, we’ll look at what the surveys found from both of these reports. We’ll also look back at trends since the Survey’s introduction in 1991. 

Data from the annual Health Survey can be extremely useful if you’re looking to gain insights into health trends. This could be over time or specific to a region or demographic such as age, region or ethnicity.

In this section, we’ll look at some of the most recent key insights and takeaways from the annual Health Survey for England.

This section focuses on general health insights gleaned from the 2022 HSE. The survey in 2022 looks at trends such as smoking, e-cigarettes, healthy eating and drinking.

Did you know? According to SurveyMonkey’s longevity study, most adults want to live beyond the average life expectancy. To do this, 69% said they would get out of their comfort zone and exercise, 67% would commit to healthier eating and 41% would save money.

Now, let’s turn to some of the top health trends found by the HSE in 2022.

One of the focuses of the 2022 annual Health Survey was the use of cigarettes and e-cigarettes. Cigarette smoking has declined from 27% in 1993 to 13% in 2022. That year, 9% of adults were also using e-cigarettes.

Current cigarette smokers (26%) were found to be more likely to smoke than those who had never smoked cigarettes (2%). The proportion of children aged 8 to 15 who had tried a cigarette had decreased from 19% in 1997 to 3% in 2022. 

However, 12% of children had tried an e-cigarette or a vaping device. This represents a growing concern for healthcare providers as children may not be educated about the health risks of smoking e-cigarettes or vape pens.

The number of e-cigarette smokers declined with age, which may demonstrate a cultural shift towards e-cigarette and vape smoking. This may be due to the ways in which e-cigarettes and vapes are advertised and marketed towards younger users.

Smoking was more common in more deprived parts of the country. More men were smokers than women in 2022.

Another key focus was healthy eating and fitness. The majority of people don’t eat the UK government’s recommended ‘5 a day’ diet. Only 29% of adults ate five portions or more of fruit and vegetables a day. 7% of adults reported that they didn’t eat any fruit or vegetables.

According to the 2022 Survey, 81% of adults in England had consumed alcohol in the last 12 months. More men (84%) than women (78%) had consumed alcohol in the last 12 months. 

Interestingly, in the last year, more women (77%) than men (74%) drank alcohol in the 16–24-year age bracket, which may show a new cultural trend emerging where young women are more likely to drink than young men. This could mean that healthcare providers may benefit from learning how to target and engage with young female drinkers in their campaigns.

In terms of drinking 14 units per week (increased or higher risk of harm), men aged 65–74 years were the most at risk (40%). For women, the age bracket most at risk was found to be 55–64 years (23%).

The 2022 Health Survey for England also looked at physical activity, including moderate and vigorous physical activity across different demographics.

The HSE also found that 22% of adults exercise less than 30 minutes a week, when considering moderate activity. Younger adults had the lowest level of inactivity. Inactivity rose with age, so the highest levels of inactivity were in the 75 and older group. Men and women were found to be similarly active.

However, the HSE reported broader gaps between the activity of men and women the older they were. Men 75 and older were the most inactive group (35%). However, women of the same age were more inactive as a group (43%).

In SurveyMonkey’s own health and fitness study, we found that yoga is the most popular fitness activity among women surveyed, while body weight training was the most popular for men surveyed. Other popular ways to stay fit are traditional routines like walking, running and cycling.

Loneliness and wellbeing were a focus of the 2021 annual Health Survey for England. While 27% of adults reported that they had never been lonely, 22% of adults felt lonely at least some of the time including 6% of those who felt lonely all the time. This means that loneliness may be a common concern for adults in England.

The 2021 Survey also looked at social care for older adults (65 and over). This part of the survey looks at how much help older adults need with an Instrumental Activity of Daily Living (IADL) or Activity of Daily Living (ADL). IADLs include activities such as:

ADLs include:

For ADLs, older adults most needed help with getting up and down the stairs (20%). This was followed by having a bath or shower (13%) and dressing and undressing (13%). 

For IADLs, older adults needed the most help with shopping for food (20%) and doing routine housework (19%). 

In total, 69% of adults aged 65 or older reported that they could perform all ADLs and IADLs without any help. However, this decreased with age – 79% of adults aged 65 – 69, 69% of adults aged 75 – 79 and a steep decline for adults aged 80 or over (48%). 

Gambling was another consideration of the 2021 survey. 50% of adults had participated in a gambling activity in the last 12 months.

With adults who had gambled in the last 12 months, 5.8% were identified as engaging in at-risk or problem gambling, in comparison with 18.2% of those who had gambled online. 10% of adults had participated in online gambling of any type during the last 12 months. 

Online gambling may be an important area of consideration for healthcare providers researching addiction. That’s because adults found to participate in online gambling were more likely to participate in gambling activities in general. 58% of online gamblers spent money on both online and offline gambling more than once a month.

The information above can be used to inform key decisions for healthcare providers, organisations and pharmaceutical companies. Some of these can include:

With SurveyMonkey’s healthcare surveys, you can find out even more about patient satisfaction. Our post-visit patient satisfaction survey template can help you to uncover:

What’s more, our hospital performance evaluation survey helps you to discover:

Our products are invaluable to a range of healthcare providers, from those in healthcare technology, to life sciences. Dig deeper into some of our healthcare use cases – including market research solutions and performance tracking.

England’s annual Health Survey can tell you much about the state of the nation’s health. The most recent 2022 survey focused on a lot of key trends regarding smoking, healthy eating, drinking and fitness. We also went over some of the results from the previous 2021, as it held great insights on areas like loneliness and wellbeing, gambling and social care for adults. With these insights in mind, you can make better campaign, marketing and patient care decisions. Easily and accurately discover how your patients feel.