Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.NHS Health Scotland is the national agency for health education in Scotland, providing leadership for health promotion in Scotland. Its remit includes:educational action to strengthen individuals' knowledge, skills and capabilitiesbuilding the capacities of systems which shape the social, environmental and economic conditions which create and sustain healthNHS Health Scotland is also committed to measuring the effectiveness of its activities and commissions research to provide reliable evaluation evidence and to inform the development of programmes. As part of this research programme, BMRB Social Research were commissioned to conduct the first Health Education Population Survey (HEPS) every March and September from March 1996 until March 1999 (seven waves in total). The resulting data, covering all three years, are held at the UK Data Archive as a single study under SN 4949. The second and following HEPS surveys were then conducted every March and September until September 2005 (ten waves in total), with two waves comprising each yearly dataset (see SNs 4950-4952, 5202 and 5470). Fieldwork was then commissioned for a further four waves, with waves eleven and twelve (conducted January-April and August-December 2006) comprising the 2006 dataset, held under SN 5713. These were followed by waves thirteen and fourteen (conducted January-April and August-November 2007) and are held under SN 6023. The main objectives of HEPS are as follows:to monitor trends in health-related attitudes, knowledge, beliefs and behaviours, and to assess the impacts of specific activitiescontribute to planning and development of health promotion initiatives through the inclusion of more detailed modules on topical issuesIn the longer term, HEPS aims to develop a strategic view of how and where health promotion activity may be most effective. This can be achieved in the following ways:identifying levels of knowledge...