16. Appendix B Table B.1
Appraisal on the data sources
Data sources used in this study
Joint Strategic Needs Assessment
Data source
General Household Survey
Hospital Episode Statistics
Description
Use of the data source
The General Household Survey (GHS) is a multi-purpose continuous survey carried out by the Social Survey Division of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) which collects information on a range of topics from people living in private households in Great Britain.
Use of primary care services from people with LTCs in Birmingham
Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) is the national statistical data warehouse for England of the care provided by NHS hospitals and for NHS hospital patients treated elsewhere.
Use of secondary care from people with LTCs
Variables used: Long standing illness GP and practice nurse appointments attended
Suitable. As primary care data is not available, this is the only source for the purpose. A problem is the data is only available at Government Office level (i.e. West Midlands) Suitable.
Variables used: primary diagnosis
Multiple LTCs Variable used: primary
JSNA LTCs Final Version
suitability of purpose
accessibility
reliability of the data source
Raw data as well as survey reports available from the ONS website.
Very reliable. Well developed methodology in sampling and questionnaire design etc.
Latest year available 2007.
Available on annual basis from the DoH.
It is supplied by the DH and it is reliable data source
Latest year available 2006/07 (when the report was written)
timeliness of data
Hospital admissions data can only represent a portion of the prevalence
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