About SEPA Household Health Survey

The CHDB’s Southeastern Pennsylvania (SEPA) Household Health Survey provides timely information on more than 13,000 residents—children and adults—living in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties. One of the longest running regional Household Health Survey in the country, the survey was conducted in 1983, 1987, 1991, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012 and most recently in 2014-2015.  The Household Health Survey has expanded beyond the SEPA region to collect information about the health and well-being of adults in Berks, Lancaster and Schuylkill Counties (2008 and 2011; and 2012 for Berks County). The survey has also been fielded in Center County, PA and in Mercer County, New Jersey (2011) to collect information about the health and well-being of children.

The survey targets key information about health status, personal health behaviors and access to and utilization of area health services. These data are available at the regional and county levels, but also at much smaller geographies, including clusters of ZIP codes or clusters of census tracts that represent neighborhoods or service areas.

The Household Health Survey provides primary data on a broad range of topics such as health status, access to care, utilization of services, personal health behaviors, health screening information, health insurance status, women's health, child health and older adult health and social support needs. For a full description of the topic areas of the survey, click here.

These data are used within organizations to:

• Conduct Community Health Needs Assessments by assessing a community's health and well-being status;
• Identify current and projected health needs;
• Provide baseline information to monitor progress toward goals, including many Healthy People 2020 goals; and
• Target, develop and market programs and services to meet the needs of the community.

Survey Methodology

The survey includes responses from more than 10,000 households in the region, representing more than 13,000 adults and children.

• Interviews are conducted by telephone (landline and cell phone) using a random-digit dial methodology; twenty percent of interviews are conducted with cell phone respondents
• Adult and child respondents are selected randomly using the "last birthday" method
• Interviews about the selected child are conducted with a child proxy, the person most knowledgeable about the child's health
• The survey includes an oversample of persons age 60 and older and age 75 and older
• Interviews are conducted in English and Spanish

Data Tool

For access to our Data Analysis Tool and online Report Card Tool click here.

Quick Citation

Click here for details on how to cite data from the Community Health Data Base.

Topic Areas List

For a downloadable PDF of Household Health Survey topics, click here.