National Environmental Health Survey 1999

The environmental health survey is carried out in collaboration between the Institute of Environmental Medicine at Karolinska Institutet and the Statistics Sweden, on behalf of the Public Health Agency of Sweden. The study has also been conducted in 2007 and 2015. National Environmental Health Survey 1999 was sent to 15,750 randomly selected persons nationwide. The target population was all in the ages of 19-81 years who resided in Sweden for the past five years. To allow comparison between the counties, a random sample of 750 people from each of the 21 counties were performed. The questionnaires were prepared, distributed and read mechanically by Survey feature at Statistics Sweden (SCB) in Örebro. Three reminders were sent out, a thank you and reminder cards to all and two reminders with new questionnaire to those who have not responded. A fourth reminder was sent to those who belong to groups that after three reminders had relatively low response rate. The questionnaire consisted of 71 questions about housing, difficult experiences, health status, smoking and dietary habits, work and education. Of the 15,496 people who received the survey 11,233 responded, giving an overall response rate of 72.5%. Purpose: The aim was to chart environmental exposure and environment related illness in the adult population