Glossary:Minimum European Health Module (MEHM)
The Minimum European Health Module (MEHM) is a set of three general questions characterizing three different concepts of health:
- Self-perceived health as the self-assessment of a person’s own health in general: “How is your health in general? Is it…” with answer categories Very good / Good / Fair / Bad / Very bad;
- Chronic morbidity as the presence of long-standing health problems: “Do you have any longstanding illness or health problem?” Yes / No;
- Activity limitations as the presence of long-standing activity limitation due to health problems measured via the Global Activity Limitation Indicator (GALI): “For at least the past 6 months, to what extent have you been limited because of a health problem in activities people usually do? Would you say you have been …” with answer categories “severely limited / limited but not severely or / not limited at all?”.
The module was developed to be used in all social surveys and is at present implemented in the European Health Interview Survey (EHIS) and EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC).