Update on the General Lifestyle Module (formerly the GHS)

Update on the General Lifestyle Module (formerly the GHS) Liam Murray and David Matthews Office for National Statistics, Government Buildings, Cardiff Road, Newport, NP10 8XG E-mail: ghs@ons.gsi.gov.uk

Outline • Background • EU-SILC (a reminder) • Changes to the sample design • KITE (Keeping In Touch Exercise) • EU-SILC outputs • Continuous Population Survey (CPS) • Background • GLF (General Lifestyle Module) • Questionnaire structure • GHS 2006 Publication • New alcohol methodology • Impact on estimates of alcohol consumption

Background • Multi-purpose annual survey started in 1971 as General Household Survey (GHS). • Current sponsors: • Dept for Work and Pensions (DWP) • Scottish Government • HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) • Information Centre for health and social care (IC - independent arm of Dept of Health) • Eurostat • Survey run every year since 1971, except 1997 and 1999 when stopped for review and redesign.

EU-SILC (a reminder) • In 2005 the EU made it a legal obligation for Member States (MS) to collect additional statistics on income and living conditions. • Comparable and timely statistics on income and living conditions. • Cross-sectional data: • Income, poverty, social exclusion and living conditions • Longitudinal data: • Income, labour market participation, non-monetary indicators of social exclusion

Sample Design • Four-year sample rotation – households can remain within the sample for up to 4 years.

Keeping In Touch Exercise (KITE) • EU-SILC specifies that we need to follow people rather than households. • KITE undertaken by the Telephone Unit (TU) in Titchfield. • The (TU) KITE establishes if an individual respondent has: • Moved to a different address within Great Britain • Moved outside Great Britain • Moved to an institution • Has deceased

EU-SILC Outputs • The ‘Laeken’ indicators • SILC-based Laeken indicators include: • Risk of poverty thresholds • At-risk-of-poverty rate (by age, gender, activity status, household type, tenure status, work intensity) • Dispersion around the poverty threshold • Risk of poverty before and after social transfers

Income poverty still affects 16 per cent of the EU population • i.e. they live in a household where equivalised income is below the threshold of 60% of the national equivalised median income UK UK

Continuous Population Survey – key aims • Deliver a range of better quality, more reliable estimates at national, regional and sub-regional levels. • Improve coherence in official statistics through fewer competing survey estimates. • Deliver efficiencies through standardisation, integration, modernisation and better design. • Greater harmonisation of concepts, classifications, questions and outputs.

Continuous Population Survey (CPS) • General Lifestyle Survey (GLF) is the new administrative name for the General Household Survey • GLF is part of the Continuous Population Survey (CPS) • CPS is a new survey integrating 5 household surveys • English Housing Survey • Expenditure & Food Survey • General Household Survey • Labour Force Survey • Omnibus Survey

Questionnaire Structure • Core • Household questions • Individual questions • GLF • Household questions • Individual questions • Trailers

Trailer Module 2008 Financial Exclusion and Over Indebtedness. • Eurostat module. • Fully piloted and tested in August 2007. • The module is designed to: • Expose levels of access to financial services • Assess the impact of financial exclusion on access to other services. • Evaluate access to credit. • Identify the level of and characteristics of debt.

Updated methodology for converting volumes to units when estimating alcohol consumption Background : • Alcohol consumption derived from alcohol content and volume drunk • This needs to be converted to equivalent standard units • 3 main social surveys: • General Household Survey (GHS) : questions since 1978 • Health Survey for England : questions since 1991 • Omnibus : questions since 1997

Quantity/Frequency method • Provides a measure of drinking which averages out behaviour over a period of time • Calculate weekly consumption by multiplying number of units by frequency, using factors : Drinking frequencyMultiplying factor Almost every day 7.0 5 or 6 days a week 5.5 3 or 4 days a week 3.5 Once or twice a week 1.5 Once or twice a month 0.375 (1.5 ÷ 4) Once every couple of months 0.115 (6 ÷ 52) Once or twice a year 0.029 (1.5 ÷ 52)

General considerations • Categories of drink eg. beer, wine, spirits etc. • How estimates of volumes drunk are obtained : main problems are with : • beers , and • wines • Assumptions that are made about the number of units in a given volume of a particular type of alcoholic drink

Varying strengths of alcohol • Beer, lager, cider : • beers/stout about 4% • lager about 5% • Cider mainly 5-6% • Alcopops – 5% • Table wine – mainly 11.5-13.5% • Fortified wine : 15-25% • Spirits/liqueurs – 37.5-40% The updated methodology needed to better reflect current ABVs

Improved method of converting volumes to units • Ideally, appropriate alcohol by volume (ABV) would be based on sales data • Some guidance from British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA), using HMRC data : • Beer/lager : 4.19% • Cider : 5.03% • Wine : 11.95% • Fortified wine : 17% • Alcopops : 4.7% • Assumed average of slightly higher ABVs

Improved method of converting volumes to units Updated conversion factors are based on : 3 main reasons : - Increases in the size of wine glass served on licensed premises - Increased alcoholic strength of wine - Better estimates of alcoholic strengths of beers, lagers and ciders Revises conversion factors used were rounded, due to : • assumptions made in arriving at the new values • used widely, and therefore more practical

Improved method of converting volumes to units Wine glass size : • Additional questions on the Omnibus survey (in February & March 2007) • Concluded 170ml as average size • Similar questions added to HSE in 2007 and GHS from 2008 • January 2008 publications : • Omnibus use this measure • GHS and HSE will use 2 units for a wine glass (rather than1 unit) : also based on increased ABV – at 12.5% 1 unit is 85ml

Improved method of converting volumes to units • Beer : very large can introduced • Strong beer : increase by approx. 0.5 units • Table wine • most change due to ; • glass size specified (previously assumed to be 125ml) • increased average ABV (9% up to 12.5%) • Increased from 1 unit to 1.6 - 3.1 units, depending on glass size

Effects on the data of the change (on 2006 GHS data) • Increases weekly alcohol consumption by about one third : from 10.2 units to 13.5 • Men’s from 14.8 to 18.7 (26% increase) • Women’s from 6.2 to 9.0 units (45 % increase) • Affects women most, as main change is for wine – and wine accounts for a much higher proportion of women’s than of men’s alcohol consumption • Increases the proportion of men drinking more than 21 units from 23 to 31%, and women drinking more than 14 units from 12 to 20%

Useful links and contacts http://www.statistics.gov.uk/ghs http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_compendia/drinkingmethodologyfinal.pdf GHS@ons.gov.uk

Update on the General Lifestyle Module (formerly the GHS)