Frequently asked questions and answers

The GGD Health Monitor 2024 is a national questionnaire about the health, well-being and lifestyle of residents of the Netherlands aged 18 and over. The study will start in September 2024. About 1.5 million people throughout the Netherlands will be invited to complete the questionnaire. In your GGD region, more than 85.000 residents have received an invitation.

Municipalities in the Netherlands have a legal obligation to monitor the health of their residents. This statutory task is carried out for the municipalities by the Municipal Public Health Service (GGD). The GGD does this at least once every four years. The GGD Health Monitor 2024 will be used by the GGDs to provide insight into the physical and mental health of adults at the national, regional and municipal levels. The GGDs will also compare the results with the results of previous monitors.

The monitor results will form an important basis for the development and implementation of local health policy for municipalities. For example, the results may show that more help is needed for certain groups, or that extra facilities are required in a municipality or neighbourhood. Through cooperation with the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) and Statistics Netherlands (CBS), the monitor will also provide information about the health of people in the Netherlands as a whole.

The GGDs, the public health department of the municipality of Utrecht, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) and Statistics Netherlands (CBS) are together carrying out this monitor. Ipsos I&O will collect the data on behalf of these parties.

CBS receives data from other organisations – such as data on income and population composition - in addition to the data gathered for this monitor. CBS combines this data. This is useful for the GGD because it means fewer questions need to be added to the GGD Health monitor. Please note that no personal details can be identified in the merged datasets sent to the GGDs by CBS.

Ipsos I&O has been asked to carry out the field work for the GGD Health Monitor 2024. This means that Ipsos I&O will send the invitations asking people to complete the questionnaire and will collect the answers. To be able to send the invitations, CBS will provide Ipsos I&O with names and addresses. This data will be erased three months after completion of the monitor, in compliance with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

The monitor will be conducted in the whole of the Netherlands and the questionnaire can be filled in between 12 September until at least 8 December 2024.

The target population for the monitor is persons aged 18 and over who are residents of the Netherlands. CBS will select people from the Personal Records Database (BRP) for participation in the GGD Health Monitor 2024 at random; this is a random sample. The selected persons together provide an average representation of the Dutch population. Temporary residents who are registered in the BRP can also be invited for the GGD Health Monitor.

The people in the random sample will receive an invitation to fill in a questionnaire from the regional GGD. The questionnaire can be filled in either online or on paper. People who are not selected will not receive a questionnaire and cannot take part in the monitor.

The questionnaire gives us insight in how you are doing. Are you healthy, do you feel happy, and are you satisfied with your local neighbourhood? By participating in this study and providing answers you are giving insight to the municipality and GGD in regards to the overall health and wellbeing of the residents.

To obtain an accurate picture of the health, well-being and lifestyle of residents of the Netherlands aged 18 and over, it is important that as many people as possible complete the questionnaire. If not enough people complete the questionnaire, the results will not be a good representation of the whole of the target population, making the research results less accurate, or even inaccurate.

If the GGD and municipality know how you and other residents are doing, the municipality can draw up targeted policies and take action to improve the health and well-being of residents. For example, the results may show that more help is needed for certain groups, or that extra facilities are required in a municipality or neighbourhood.

By answering questions about your health, you are more likely to think about your own health and well-being. As a result, you may have questions about your health. For this reason, sources of information providing reliable health information are included at the end of the online questionnaire. These websites can provide answers to questions that you may have after filling in the questionnaire. Finally, by completing the questionnaire you have a chance to win one of the 8 Samsung Galaxy A9 Plus tablets worth 249 euros or one of the 20 VVV Gift Cards worth 50 euros.

For more information or if you have questions about this health monitor, please contact the Ipsos I&O helpdesk. You can call Ipsos I&O free of charge on 0800 0191 (7 days a week, 09.00 – 21.00), or you can send an email to NLhelpdeskGM@ipsos.com.

We have sent invitations to approximately 1.5 million residents of the Netherlands, aged 18 and over to take part in the GGD Health Monitor 2024. Every resident in the Netherlands is registered with their municipality. CBS has selected people at random from this register to take part in this monitor. If you have received an invitation, you are one of these people. The selected persons together represent the total group of residents aged 18 and over in the municipality. Your name and address details will be used to send the invitation and any reminders to complete the questionnaire. This data will be erased three months after completion of the monitor.

No. By completing the questionnaire (and sending it, if you fill it in on paper), you agree to participate in the GGD Health Monitor 2024. We will remind you of this when you start the questionnaire. Note that you do not have to answer a certain question if you do not want to, you may adjust your answers, and you may stop filling in the questionnaire at any time. Your answers will be processed confidentially, will be stored safely and will not be shared with any party that is not named in the privacy statement.

If you complete the questionnaire online but decide to stop filling it in, any answers that you have already provided will be saved. Should you decide that you do not want your answers to be used in the monitor, we can erase your answers. For this, you can contact Ipsos I&O at NLhelpdeskGM@ipsos.com or on 0800 0191 (7 days a week, 09.00 – 21.00). Once you have provided your login details, Ipsos I&O will make sure that your answers are erased.

No, participation in the monitor is entirely voluntary, although we would very much appreciate it if you do take part. Your participation is important, because the results of the monitor will be used by the municipality to better align its policies and activities with the needs and requirements of its residents.

You can fill in the questionnaire online or on paper, although online is quicker as you automatically skip the questions that do not apply to you. Moreover, the online questionnaire is available in English, the paper questionnaire is not. The invitation letter contains your personal login code; fill this in at www.startvragenlijst.nl/ggd to start the questionnaire.

Do you prefer to fill in the questionnaire on paper? Then wait to participate until you receive a paper questionnaire from us. Once you fill in the paper questionnaire, you can return it in the enclosed return envelope without a stamp.

Some people are quicker than others, but it should take about 30 minutes.

Yes, please! The aim of this monitor is to get a good idea of how everyone aged 18 and over in the municipality is doing, not just people who are not doing so well. If only these people fill in the questionnaire, it will look like there are a lot of problems in a municipality, even though this may not be the case for everyone.

We send a reminder to make sure that as many people as possible complete the questionnaire. We use the login code or the code on the back of the paper questionnaire to work out who has not yet filled in the questionnaire. These people receive a reminder. You will therefore also receive a reminder if you have started to fill in the questionnaire but have not yet completed it. Note that all address data will be erased three months after completion of the monitor.

We probably received or processed your questionnaire after the reminders had already been sent. You do not need to contact Ipsos I&O or the GGD about this, and you can throw the reminder away. You may also have received a reminder if you have started to fill in the questionnaire but have not yet completed it. In this case, please carry on filling in the questionnaire and complete it. If you leave the questionnaire then log in again, you can continue where you left off.

Perhaps the Caps Lock is turned on or you have used capital letters in the login code when you should use small letters. You should type the address www.startvragenlijst.nl/ggd directly into the search window of your internet browser and not into a search engine (such as Google). If you are unable to log in, please contact Ipsos I&O at NLhelpdeskGM@ipsos.com or on 0800 0191 (7 days a week, 09.00 – 21.00).

We cannot send a new login code, but you can wait for the reminder letter, which you will receive about three weeks after the invitation. This reminder contains the login code.

Do not worry if you are unable to carry on filling in the questionnaire because of a problem with your computer or because the page has timed out. You can simply log in again after ten minutes and carry on where you were (the system needs this time to recognise that you are no longer filling in the questionnaire). The answers that you have filled in so far will be saved automatically, so you don’t have to start the questionnaire again.

You can stop filling in the questionnaire at any time. You can then simply log in again and carry on where you were. The answers that you have filled in so far will be saved automatically, so you don’t have to start the questionnaire again.

You can send back the questionnaire in a normal envelope without a postage stamp to:
Ipsos I&O, Antwoordnummer 1104, 7500 VB Enschede

By completing the questionnaire, you agree to participate in the GGD Health Monitor 2024. Note that you do not have to answer a certain question if you do not want to, you may adjust your answers, and you may stop filling in the questionnaire at any time. If you want to stop halfway through and do not want the answers you have entered so far to be saved, you will have to go back through the questionnaire to delete your answers. An explanation of how to do this can be found at the start of the questionnaire. You can also contact Ipsos I&O to have your data deleted. This is possible until 8 December 2024. To do so, you can contact Ipsos I&O at NLhelpdeskGM@ipsos.com or on 0800 0191 (7 days a week, 09.00 – 21.00). Once you have provided your login details, Ipsos I&O will ensure that your answers are erased.

No, it is important that the questionnaire is filled in by the person to whom the invitation was sent. Please therefore check that it is your name on the invitation letter. If this is not the case, please give the questionnaire to the person it is addressed to. People are selected to take part in the monitor at random, and the selected persons together provide an average representation of people in the whole of the municipality. Are you unable to complete the questionnaire on your own? If so, you can ask a family member or someone else to help, but you must fill in your answers. You can also contact Ipsos I&O at NLhelpdeskGM@ipsos.com or on 0800 0191 (7 days a week, 09.00 – 21.00) if you need help filling in the questionnaire.

Yes, a helpdesk employee can assist you with filling out the questionnaire. You can get assistance in various languages. You can call the helpdesk (Ipsos I&O) free of charge on 0800 0191 (7 days a week, 09.00 – 21.00).

At the end of the questionnaire you can indicate whether you would like to participate in research, for example by filling in a questionnaire, participating in an interview or taking part in the GGD Health Panel. This is without obligation. For each study, you may decide whether or not you wish to take part and you can unsubscribe at any time. As a member of the Health Panel, you will receive short questionnaires on topics in the field of health several times a year. These questionnaires will be conducted in Dutch.

The aim of the Health Monitor 2024 is to monitor the health of adults over a period of time. To enable comparisons to be made with this and previous monitors, we need to save the results. We have taken the required technical and organisational measures to ensure that the data is protected, and the data that we store will not contain any directly identifiable information.

Names and addresses are used by Ipsos I&O to send the invitations and reminders to complete the questionnaire and inform prize winners. This data cannot be linked to the answers provided in the questionnaire. Names and addresses will be erased three months after completion of the monitor.

We will of course process your answers with the utmost care. Your privacy is protected as a participant in this study in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). This means that the collected data will be handled and processed in strict confidence.

We are not interested in information on individual persons. The research results will only present data on the total group of residents aged 18 and over or subgroups such as the elderly or young people. We will not present any results on individual persons, and your answers will therefore never be published.

Would you like to know more about how we handle the privacy of participants? Read our privacy statement.

Every resident in the Netherlands is registered with their municipality. Municipalities are required by law to provide official government agencies with information from the municipal population register. For the GGD Health Monitor 2024, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) received data from the municipal population register. Using this data, CBS selected people for participation in the GGD Health Monitor 2024 at random, who are therefore representative of the population. This group of residents has been sent an invitation to fill in the questionnaire.

For the online questionnaire, the login code is registered so that the computer can see whether or not you have completed the questionnaire. For the paper copy of the questionnaire, a bar code is printed on every page, which is read by the computer. These bar codes and login codes are compared with the list of participants, based on which reminders are sent out. Note that all address data will be erased once the monitor has been completed.

We only use your name and address to send the invitation and the reminders and, if  you have given permission, to send the incentives. The data file containing the names and addresses is not linked to your answers and will be erased on completion of the monitor. The research results only describe the total group of residents aged 18 and over or subgroups such as the elderly or young people, and not individuals. Your individual answers will therefore not be published. Would you like to know more about how we handle the privacy of participants in this study? Read the privacy statement.

The answers provided in this monitor will be combined with information sent to CBS by other organisations, such as data on income and population composition. As a result, the GGD can reduce the number of questions in the questionnaire. No persons can be identified in the aggregated information that GGDs receive from CBS. With the combined data, CBS can also weigh the results of the GGD Health Monitor. Weighing is necessary to ensure that the participants are a good reflection of the population. Population groups that participated relatively little are then counted more heavily in the results. Groups that have participated relatively often are counted less heavily.

Every participant is assigned a unique number, based on which the data is combined. This is an automated process in which no personal information such as name and address is used.

GGD Zuid Limburg has a health panel. This is a group of residents from the region who participate a few times a year in short digital surveys about health and issues that may affect it. After completing the questionnaire, you can sign up for our health panel by leaving your e-mail address. Your e-mail address will only be used for this purpose and will not be linked to your answers to the questionnaire. You do not commit to anything with your registration. You can decide not to participate at any time. You can unsubscribe by sending an e-mail to panel@ggdzl.nl.

The questionnaire deals with the following topics:

• General information: age, sex, household composition, education
• Health: perceived health, chronic disorders, long covid / post-covid, sleep
• Well-being: mental health, stress, resilience, control of one’s life, happiness, positive mental health, quality of life
• Social contacts: loneliness, social support, social contacts
• Lifestyle: height and weight, exercise, eating habits
• Substance use: smoking, vaping, alcohol
• Healthcare: care use, care avoidance
• Participation: providing informal care, receiving informal care, informal care availability, volunteer work, association membership, discrimination
• Negative thoughts: suicidal thoughts
• Living environment: noise pollution, sleep disturbance, times sleep disturbance, odour pollution, satisfaction with living environment, access to cooler areas during hot spells, perception of risks in living environment, safety
• Work and financial situation: work, difficulties to make ends meet,  long-term poverty, help with finances

Are you 18 to 65 years? The following topics are included in the questionnaire:

• Parenting support
• Opinion alcohol use children

Are you 65 years or older? The following topics are included in the questionnaire:

• Limitations
• Falls
• Frailty
• Self-resilience (household daily living activities)
• Use and need for welfare facilities
• Social network 

Municipalities are interested in health differences between different groups of adults. This could show, for example, that more help is needed for certain groups. This is why the questionnaire contains a number of questions about your background, including your level of education.

Yes, that is possible. If you fill in the questionnaire online, you will see a page at the end of the questionnaire listing websites where you can find more information on the topics in this questionnaire.

Municipalities will use the monitor results to develop health policy. Municipalities and the GGD may also use the results to organise specific activities to improve the health and well-being of local residents. Through cooperation with RIVM and CBS, the monitor will also provide information on the health of people in the Netherlands as a whole.

The monitor results will be published in mid-2025 on the CBS Statline, RIVM Statline, VZinfo (RIVM) websites and on the Health Atlas of the GGD Zuid Limburg. The results will only present data relating to the whole group of participants aged 18 and over or subgroups, such as the elderly or young people. We will not present any results relating to individual persons, and your answers will therefore not be published.

No, it is not possible to inform the participants of the results, as the addresses of the participants will be erased 3 months after completion of the study. The monitor results will be published in mid-2025 on CBS Statline, RIVM Statline, VZinfo (RIVM) websites and on the Health Atlas of the GGD Zuid Limburg.

It is possible that you cannot or do not want to fill in the questionnaire. In this case, please send an email to NLhelpdeskGM@ipsos.com stating your login code, which you will find in the invitation letter, or your address. You may also call 0800 0191 (7 days a week, 09.00 – 21.00).

You do not have to answer a certain question if you do not want to, you may adjust your answers, and you may stop filling in the questionnaire at any time. If you stop filling in the questionnaire, any answers that you have already provided will be saved. Should you decide that you do not want your answers to be used in the study, we can erase your answers. This is possible until 8 December 2024. To do so, you can contact Ipsos I&O at NLhelpdeskGM@ipsos.com or on 0800 0191 (7 days a week, 09.00 – 21.00). Once you have provided your login details, Ipsos I&O will make sure that your answers are erased.

Despite the care taken to ensure that the addresses are correct, you may have received an invitation for someone who no longer lives at your address. To ensure that the GGD does not send you any further reminders, please inform us of this by sending an email to NLhelpdeskGM@ipsos.com. Please include the login code, which you will find in the invitation letter, or the address. You may also call 0800 0191 (7 days a week, 09.00 – 21.00).

If the person to whom the letter is addressed is unable to fill in the questionnaire, for example due to illness, you may not want this person to continue to receive reminders. Would you please inform us of this by sending an email to NLhelpdeskGM@ipsos.com? Please include the login code, which you will find in the invitation letter, or the address. You may also call 0800 0191 (7 days a week, 09.00 – 21.00).

The questionnaire can be completed until 8 December 2024. If the person to whom the letter is addressed will return before this date, they may still be able to fill in the questionnaire. If they will not return before this date, would you please inform us of this by sending an email to NLhelpdeskGM@ipsos.com? Please include the login code, which you will find in the invitation letter, or the address. You may also call 0800 0191 (7 days a week, 09.00 – 21.00).

Despite the care taken to ensure that the addresses are correct, you may have received an invitation letter for someone who has died. In this case, please accept our sincere apologies. To make sure that the GGD does not send reminders, would you please inform us of this by sending an email to NLhelpdeskGM@ipsos.com? Please include the login code, which you will find in the invitation letter, or the address. You may also call 0800 0191 (7 days a week, 09.00 – 21.00).

It is possible that you cannot or do not want to fill in the questionnaire of the GGD Health Monitor. Please inform us of this by sending an email to NLhelpdeskGM@ipsos.com. Please include your login code, which you will find in the invitation letter, or your address. You may also call 0800 0191 (7 days a week, 09.00 – 21.00). If you do not want the GGD to contact you for other future studies, please inform your municipality of this, as we have obtained your name and address from the personal records database (BRP).

Anyone who participates and has completed the questionnaire (via the internet or on paper) has a chance to win one of the 8 Samsung Galaxy A9 Plus tablets worth 249 euros or one of the 20 VVV Gift Cards worth 50 euros. The winners will be randomly selected from the participants. At the end of the questionnaire, you can indicate whether you want to participate in the prize draw.

If you have won a  Samsung Galaxy tablet or a VVV Gift Card, we will send it to you by post. We use your name and address details from the sample for this purpose. Ipsos I&O will draw the prize winners of the Samsung Galaxy tablets and the VVV Gift Cards at the beginning of December 2024. If you don't hear from us, you are not one of the winners.

Ipsos I&O will draw prize winners at the beginning of December 2024. If you are one of the winners, the Samsung Galaxy tablet or the VVV Gift Card will be sent to you by post after the prize draw. We use your name and address details from the sample for this purpose. If you don't hear from us, you are not one of the winners.

When you have a complaint or comment about the GGD Health Monitor, you can contact the GGD Zuid Limburg researchers by sending an e-mail to monitor@ggdzl.nl.

This questionnaire about your health, lifestyle, well-being and living conditions may have raised some questions. We would like to help you find reliable information:

• You can find reliable information on health, lifestyle and illnesses at www.thuisarts.nl.
• Complete the test on mijnpositievegezondheid.nl to find out what you can do to improve your physical and mental health.
• You can find an overview of reliable apps and websites that you can use right away at www.ggdappstore.nl.
• Information about health can be found on the website of the GGD Zuid Limburg.
• For support and facilities in your local area, please go to the municipality website.
• If you are concerned about your health, please contact your GP.