Eurobarometer 58.2: Public Health and Development Aid Opinions

Eurobarometer 58.2 surveyed European Union citizens in late 2002 on health behaviors and attitudes toward developing countries. Topics include smoking habits, environmental risk perceptions, emotional well-being, physical activity, and opinions on foreign aid budgets and international agreements like the Cotonou Agreement. Demographic variables cover occupation, income, political orientation, and urban-rural residence.

Use Cases

• Analyzing correlations between political orientation and support for international development aid based on survey responses.
• Studying public awareness of health risks like smoking and HIV/AIDS across different demographic groups.
• Modeling the relationship between urban-rural residence and perceptions of environmental quality.
• Comparing attitudes toward the European Commission's budget for foreign aid across EU member states.
• Investigating links between emotional well-being indicators and reported physical activity levels.

Strengths

• Covers a wide thematic scope, merging detailed health behavior data with political opinions on international aid.
• Includes specific demographic variables like political left-right placement and household income contributor, enabling subgroup analysis.
• Released under an Open Access (green) license, facilitating reuse and distribution.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, column names, and exact update date are missing from all provided sources.
• The dataset's age (2002) limits its relevance for analyzing current public opinion or health trends.
• Relies on self-reported survey data, which may be subject to social desirability bias and recall inaccuracies.

Provenance

Source

European Commission

Collection Method

Standard Eurobarometer public opinion survey.

Time Range

October-December 2002

Geography

European Union member states