In 2018, there were about 13% of persons among the population of Czechia aged 15+ years who due to their health problems coped for a long period of time with certain limitations in their daily life. To put it in absolute numbers, it was approximately 1 152 thousand persons. Over a half of them were senior citizens aged 65+ years and more often it applied to females. How do we know that? Because it was you who told us so!

Information about how diverse this group of the population is and what difficulties they face in their ordinary life, however, cannot be found out from any available data. Therefore we address our fellow citizens once in five or six years and ask them in the framework of a sample survey in households about their health problems and consequences they lead to. Answers obtained are of extraordinary importance to us and we express our great thanks for your willingness to answer our questions.
 

About the survey

From the existing health registers, databases, and records only data on people “officially” with disabilities or health disadvantages are currently available. However, what is totally missing is information on what are lives of those of our fellow citizens really like, what and who is helping them in their everyday life and what is, on the other hand, missing. We also completely lack information about persons who were not granted a disability pension or a disability status and who do not receive care benefit although their health problems cause them various difficulties and are limiting them in their daily life.

The main purpose of the Sample Survey on Persons with Disabilities (VŠPO) – 2018 was to obtain information about the number of persons with long-term health problems in Czechia and on their structure as for their age, sex, economic activity, and education. Further, it was to find out in what areas their disability is reflected and what was it caused by, what particular activities are problematic for people with long-term health problems or which they cannot cope with at all without assistance, whether they suffer from pain or fatigue and exhaustion, whether they use mobility aids or whether they use assistance of a care worker.
 

What do the results serve for?

Information obtained from the VŠPO – 2018 survey helped map the current situation and needs of people living with a health limitation. Results of the survey also serve for monitoring of how the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is complied with and as a basis for and reasoning to push through legislative changes directed on elimination of barriers and improvement of the current situation of people with disabilities in Czechia.
 

How does the survey take place?

A trained interviewer of the CZSO went through individual questions of a survey questionnaire with members of a selected household and recorded their answers in a paper or an electronic version of the questionnaire. The data collection in the framework of the VŠPO was carried out in relation to the Labour Force Sample Survey (LFSS) of the CZSO and took place from July 2018 up to the end of January 2019. After the end of the data collection, the relevant unit of the CZSO processed answers of all survey participants en masse and made summary statistical data from them, which the CZSO published in tables and charts. In 2018, 6 791 respondents aged 15+ years participated in the survey. Another similar survey is currently underway in the years 2023 and 2024.
 

Where can you find the survey results?

Everyone who is interested in the results of the VŠPO survey can get acquainted with them on the web pages of the CZSO in a publication called Výběrové šetření osob se zdravotním postižením - 2018 – Czech only (in English the title reads: Sample Survey of Persons with Disabilities – 2018) or also in articles published in the Statistika&My (Statistics & Us) journal of the CZSO called Lidé se zdravotním postižením jsou často senioři – Czech only (in English the title reads: People with Disabilities Are Often Senior Citizens) and Pomoc rodiny je rozhodující – Czech only (in English the title reads: Help of the Family is Crucial).
 

Data confidentiality and protection

Information that interviewers get acquainted with during sample surveys in households is strictly anonymous. The CZSO fully respects the European legal framework for personal data protection (GDPR) and acts in compliance with it. Moreover, all employees of the CZSO are sworn to secrecy about all surveyed facts pursuant to the Act No 89/1995 Sb, on the State Statistical Service. No piece of information that would identify interviewed respondents enters the processing itself. Information from the survey is published solely in the form of statistical summaries.

Detailed information on personal data processing can be found at:
https://www.czso.cz/csu/czso/personal-data-protection-gdpr