3. Privacy

3.1 What happens to the data that is collected?

The aim of the Health Monitor Adults and Eldery 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.

3.2 What about privacy?

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.

3.3 How did you obtain my name and address?

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 Adults and Eldery 2024, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) received data from the municipal population register. Using this data, CBS selected persons for participation in the GGD Health Monitor Adults and Eldery 2024 at random, who are therefore representative of the population. This group of residents has been sent an invitation to fill in the questionnaire.

3.4 How can you check whether I have filled 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.

3.5 Do other people know what I have filled in?

We only use your name and address to send the invitation and the reminders and to inform prize winners. 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.

3.6 How is my privacy guaranteed when data is combined with other data?

The answers provided in this monitor are 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 person 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.