Study title

Welfare and Services in Finland is a panel survey that combines telephone and face-to-face interviews, postal surveys and register data. The aim of the study is to offer up-to-date, reliable and extensive research data on Finnish welfare and the use of welfare services. In 2013, the survey was conducted through telephone interviews. Main topics included well-being, financial circumstances, housing, inclusion and participation, health, use of and satisfaction with social services, informal care, quality of life, attitudes, and social trust. Well-being was charted with questions focusing on the standard of living and housing. The respondents were asked, among others, whether they were able to pay their housing costs and other expenses, whether they had mortgage and other loans, whether the household could afford certain things (e.g. buy new clothes rather than used ones), whether the household had received financial aid from others, and how satisfied they were with different aspects of their neighbourhood of residence. Relating to inclusion and participation, the questions presented charted feelings of loneliness, participation in the activities of a club or association and voting in the previous parliamentary elections. Relating to health and health services, questions were asked about health status, limiting long-term illnesses or disabilities and their impact on daily life, stress, pregnancies, and visits to a doctor or nurse in the previous 12 months. Further questions probed whether certain things (e.g. lack of money) had prevented the respondents from receiving treatment, whether they had had to wait unreasonably long for treatment (e.g. to get a doctor's appointment in a health centre), and whether they had refrained from buying medicine for lack of money. Perceptions of the quality of public and private health services used were surveyed. Use of social services was investigated with questions surveying contacts with the social services in the previous 12...