Barriers to the Use of Health Survey Data in Democratic Analysis

URING the last five years we have witnessed in this country a rather remarkable resurgence of survey research dealing with health and medical care. A number of major surveys on health matters had been undertaken during the 1930's. But, perhaps owing to the war and the immediate post-war concern with inflation and international relations, the pace of activities slackened considerably during the next decade. Health research of the non-medical variety was scarcely a major concern. In fact, during the period when the large-scale British Survey of Sickness was operating at full tilt, general population surveys dealing with a broad range of conditions were extremely rare in this country. They were practically restricted to the departments of rural sociology in five or six state universities. Recently, the picture has changed radically. A wide variety of subjects related to health and medical care have been examined with considerable thoroughness but for relatively small samples and usually for limited universes. Now that we have the long-awaited National Health Survey, we shall soon have enough cases for the study of at least a great many of the problems that might concern us.