Study title

Welfare and Services in Finland 2013

Dataset ID Number

FSD3037

Persistent identifier

urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3037

Data Type

Quantitative

Authors

• Moisio, Pasi (National Institute for Health and Welfare)

Other Identification/Acknowledgements

• Nyberg, Riina (Statistics Finland)
• Potila, Anna-Kaarina (Statistics Finland)

Abstract

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 2013, the survey was conducted through telephone interviews. Main topics included well-being, financial circumstances, housing, inclusion and participation, health, use of and satisfaction with social services, informal care, quality of life, attitudes, and social trust.

Well-being was charted with questions focusing on the standard of living and housing. The respondents were asked, among others, whether they were able to pay their housing costs and other expenses, whether they had mortgage and other loans, whether the household could afford certain things (e.g. buy new clothes rather than used ones), whether the household had received financial aid from others, and how satisfied they were with different aspects of their neighbourhood of residence.

Relating to inclusion and participation, the questions presented charted feelings of loneliness, participation in the activities of a club or association and voting in the previous parliamentary elections. Relating to health and health services, questions were asked about health status, limiting long-term illnesses or disabilities and their impact on daily life, stress, pregnancies, and visits to a doctor or nurse in the previous 12 months. Further questions probed whether certain things (e.g. lack of money) had prevented the respondents from receiving treatment, whether they had had to wait unreasonably long for treatment (e.g. to get a doctor's appointment in a health centre), and whether they had refrained from buying medicine for lack of money. Perceptions of the quality of public and private health services used were surveyed.

Use of social services was investigated with questions surveying contacts with the social services in the previous 12 months, sufficiency of the service, opinions on the fee and waiting time for the service. Further questions probed whether certain things (e.g. lack of money, distance to services) had prevented the respondents from receiving the service, whether they had ever applied for social assistance and when, whether the social assistance received had been sufficient, and whether they had had to wait unreasonably long to receive the assistance. Use of and satisfaction with private social services were surveyed.

Questions concerning informal care studied whether the respondents assisted an aged, disabled or sick friend or relative, whether they were the primary caregiver of the person they cared for, how often they helped this person, how satisfied they were with public and private services the person they helped had received, and whether they had made an informal care agreement with the municipality.

Perceptions of quality of life were charted as well as satisfaction with health, ability to do things in the previous two weeks (in terms of money and energy), and satisfaction with various things in life (e.g. neighbourhood of residence).

Attitudes were investigated by asking the respondents whether they thought there was discrimination against certain groups in Finland, who should hold the main responsibility for elderly care in Finland, whether the elderly should spend more of their own savings on their treatment, whether the level of social security in Finland was too high or low, and what their expectations for the financial circumstances of the household and their personal situation were. Further topics covered, among others, the gap between the rich and poor in Finland and the relationship between taxation level and social security.

Finally, trust in other people and the public administration was charted as well as satisfaction with own life, leisure time and work.

Background variables included, among others, the size of the household and number of children in the household as well as the respondent's gender, level of education, age, marital status, economic activity, occupational status, type of employment contract, region (NUTS3), major region (NUTS2), disposable income of the household, and hospital district.

Keywords

family policy; health; health policy; health services; housing; informal care; living conditions; quality of life; satisfaction; social networks; social security; social security benefits; social services; social welfare; standard of living; welfare policy; well-being (health)

Topic Classification

• Social sciences (Fields of Science Classification)
• Health care services and policies (CESSDA Topic Classification)
• Specific social services: use and availability (CESSDA Topic Classification)

Series

Welfare and Services in Finland

Distributor

Finnish Social Science Data Archive

Access

The dataset is (C) available only for research including master's theses.

Data Collector

• Nyberg, Riina (Statistics Finland)
• Potila, Anna-Kaarina (Statistics Finland)

Time Period Covered

2013

Collection Dates

• 2013-04-15 – 2013-06-18
• 2013-08-19 – 2013-12-02

Nation

Finland

Geographical Coverage

Finland

Analysis/Observation Unit Type

Individual

Universe

People aged 18-79 residing permanently in Finland (excluding the Åland Islands)

Time Method

Longitudinal: Trend/Repeated cross-section

Longitudinal: Panel

Sampling Procedure

Probability: Stratified

The sample was drawn from the population database of Statistics Finland. Sampling was conducted as stratified sampling with gender, year of birth and region of residence as strata. The respondents were selected from each stratum by using simple random sampling. The interviews were conducted in two stages: interviews in first stage (sample of 3,106 persons) were conducted 15 April - 18 June 2013 at the field interview unit of Statistics Finland and interviews in the second stage (sample of 2,736 persons) 19 August - 2 December 2013 at the telephone interview unit (CATI) of Statistics Finland.

There are 2,410 new respondents in the study (sample of 3,704 persons, response rate 65.1%) and 1,816 longitudinal respondents (sample of 2,138 persons, response rate 84.9%) who participated in the 2009 study and gave their consent for another interview. The data contain the responses of 4,226 persons.

Collection Mode

Telephone interview

Telephone interview: Computer-assisted (CATI)

Research Instrument

Structured questionnaire

Response Rate

72.3

Data File Language

Downloaded data package may contain different language versions of the same files.

The data files of this dataset are available in the following languages: English and Finnish.

FSD translates quantitative data into English on request, free of charge. More information on ordering data translation.

Number of Cases and Variables

191 variables and 4226 cases.

Data Version

2.0

Completeness of Data and Restrictions

To prevent identification, variable bv4 denoting sub-region unit (NUTS4) was removed from the data.

Weighting

The dataset contains sampling weights and expansion weights for both respondents and households that correct for the bias caused by non-response. The weights correct for the differences between gender, age group, and region. Expansion weights paino1_1 and paino2_1 expand the data to represent the population. Sampling weights paino1_2 and paino2_2 were scaled from the expansion weights so that their means are 1.00 and that they sum to the number of respondents.

Citation Requirement

The data and its creators shall be cited in all publications and presentations for which the data have been used. The bibliographic citation may be in the form suggested by the archive or in the form required by the publication.

Bibliographical Citation

Moisio, Pasi (National Institute for Health and Welfare): Welfare and Services in Finland 2013 [dataset]. Version 2.0 (2018-09-26). Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor]. https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3037

Deposit Requirement

Notify FSD of all publications where you have used the data by sending the citation information to user-services.fsd@tuni.fi.

Disclaimer

The original data creators and the archive bear no responsibility for any results or interpretations arising from the reuse of the data.

Related Materials

Suomalaisten hyvinvointi 2014 (2014). Toim. Vaarama, Marja & Karvonen, Sakari & Kestilä, Laura & Moisio, Pasi & Muuri, Anu. Helsinki: Terveyden ja hyvinvoinnin laitos. http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-302-015-3

Related Publications

Suomalaisten hyvinvointi 2014 (2014). Toim. Vaarama, Marja & Karvonen, Sakari & Kestilä, Laura & Moisio, Pasi & Muuri, Anu. Helsinki: Terveyden ja hyvinvoinnin laitos. http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-302-015-3

Miettinen, Mariella (2017). Vanhusten elämänlaatu ja siihen yhteydessä olevat tekijät vuosina 2004 ja 2013. Turku: Turun yliopisto. Sosiaalitieteiden laitos. Sosiaalipolitiikan kandidaatintutkielma.