The Hordaland Health Studies
The main purpose of HUSK is to gather knowledge in order to prevent disease: 1) preventive health work - identification of possible modifiable risk factors for disease 2) research - mapping of occurrence, among other things, to uncover the extent of the disease, identify causal factors, and better predict future health service needs.
Main content
The Hordaland Health Studies (HHS) were conducted in 1992/93 (The Homocysteine study) and in 1997/99 (HUSK). Both surveys were conducted as a joint project between the University of Bergen, the Norwegian Health Screening Service (SHUS) (now part of the National Institute of Public Health) and the Municipal Health Service in Hordaland.
The HHS are interdisciplinary research collaborations with several sub-projects. The main focus of the studies is on chronic diseases including cadiovascular disease, cancer, osteoporosis, anxiety and depression. Some projects focus on psychosocial factors, occupational research, musculoskeletal diseases, urinary incontinence and mapping of drug use. The main purpose of the surveys is to gather information so that disease ultimately can be prevented.
Approximately 36,000 residents of Hordaland county participated in the studies, ca. 18,000 in 1992/93 and ca. 26,000 in 1997/99. About 7,000 of those who participated in the 1992/93 survey also participated in 1997/99.
The Hordaland Health Studies are part of the national research collaboration CONOR (COhort of NORway), and also participates in the Norwegian Epidemiologic Osteoporosis Studies (NOREPOS)
The steering group for the Health Surveys in Hordaland (HUSK)
(Adopted by the Department Council at the Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care (IGS), November 2021)
Head of Research at IGS
Associate professor Jannicke Igland, secretary.
Rolf Terje Lie (IGS)
Ottar Nygård (Department of Clinical Science (K2) and Haukeland University Hospital)
Marjolein Iversen, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences
Eva Gerdts (Department of Clinical Science (K2) and Haukeland University Hospital)
The steering group must ensure that health information collected in HUSK can be made available, collated with other information or processed in other ways if this is within the framework of the consent and the purpose of the survey, cf. regulations on population-based health surveys § 4-1.
Local working group at the Department of Global Health and Primary Care
The working group processes incoming data access applications. This group will meet as needed and will initially consist of Jannicke Igland, Kari Juul and Rolv Terje Lie.
Data Controller
The University of Bergen is the data controller for HUSK. This means that the University of Bergen will manage the data and biological material collected in HUSK.
HUSK is regulated under the "Regulation for Population-Based Health Surveys." The Personal Data Act, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (in accordance with the Personal Data Act § 1), and the Health Registry Act apply to the processing of health information in population-based health surveys.
