Healthy Illinois Survey

Close up of an older man playing basketball with a young girl in a park

Problem

Illinois wanted a better understanding of the social determinants of health across the state.

In 2021, the Illinois General Assembly passed legislation requiring the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) to conduct the Healthy Illinois Survey, a “comprehensive annual survey of Illinois residents to provide robust and statistically reliable public health data for every county across Illinois." The Healthy Illinois Survey (HIL) will examine a broad set of social determinants of health. The results of the survey will guide policymakers, including legislators, IDPH, local health departments, hospitals, and others to make informed decisions on how to best allocate limited public health resources.

Solution

NORC is conducting one of the largest state-level multi-mode, address-based studies in the United States.

Based on the results of a 2023 pilot study which NORC conducted on on IDPH's behalf, the annual HIL Survey is designed as a multi-mode, address-based sample study.

The HIL Survey will enable estimates for all 102 counties, municipalities in Cook County (alone or grouped with neighbors), and 77 Chicago community areas. Our goal is to collect approximately 55,000 completed interviews per year following a sequential, multi-mode design. The HIL Survey will cover routine health topic areas, including general health, health care access, chronic health conditions, demographic characteristics, and social determinants of health and health equity.

As part of NORC's partnership with IDPH, we will also design and construct a public-facing data publishing tool that will deliver estimates at various geographies, including ZIP codes, suburban Cook County municipalities, Chicago community areas, and counties. Users will be able to select their own geographies and health measures to create custom thematic maps, reports, and tabulations.

Result

Our findings will inform the work of public health professionals, researchers, and policymakers.

HIL will provide health estimates by key demographic groups (race/ethnicity, gender, age) and geographies not previously available in Illinois. We anticipate public health professionals, researchers, and policymakers across the state will use HIL data to understand health trends and their impact on very specific areas. The interactive publishing tool will allow the public to explore health attitudes and behaviors and interactively create their own custom tabulations and maps.