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 2004, the survey was conducted as a telephone interview and postal survey. Questions in the telephone interview charted the respondents' household, parents and childhood, economic activity and work, housing and economic circumstances, attitudes, and use of health and social services. The questions focusing on the household, parents and childhood surveyed the number of people in the household, the number of children in the household, parents' occupations, and economic circumstances in childhood home. Relating to economic activity and work, the economic activity was charted and, depending on the activity, further questions investigated, among others, spells of unemployment, type of employment contract, work schedule, job-related uncertainty, and age when retired. Concerning housing, the questions investigated the housing tenure, number of rooms, floor area, type of neighbourhood, satisfaction with various aspects of the housing, and difficulties with the home. Some questions studied the respondents' economic circumstances, for example, savings, mortgage, difficulties with housing costs and other loans, and ability to pay for food. Relating to health, questions were asked about health status, exercise habits, alcohol consumption, smoking, height and weight, limiting long-term illnesses or disabilities and their effects on daily life, stress, and visits to a doctor or nurse in the previous 12 months. Further questions probed where the respondents would primarily try to get a doctor's appointment during daytime, whether they had received sufficient care for health problems, what the distance to the closest health centre, doctor's office, dentist's office etc. was from their home, and whether they...