Health Promotion Barometers, formerly called Health Barometers, chart the views of municipal and organisational decision makers on the present state and the future of health promotion. In addition, the surveys investigate the respondents' attitudes towards current health issues from the administrative point of view. The surveys conducted annually 1992-2011 by the Finnish Centre for Health Promotion (nowadays SOSTE Finnish Society for Social and Health).
The survey focused on the health promotion strategies, methods and activities of Finnish municipalities (local government) at the time of the survey and in the future. The respondents were municipal managers or directors of health services. The same set of questions was also presented to member organisations (FSD2439).
Opinions on the general situation of health promotion in the municipality and in Finland were charted. The respondents were also asked about the state of various health promotion issues in their municipality, for instance, care available for alcohol and drugs misusers, support for families with children, the aged and the disadvantaged, access to municipal services, and leisure opportunities. View were also probed on the visibility and social significance of health promotion, resource allocation in health services, and how well the objectives of the Health Promotion Policy Programme and the Policy programme for the well-being of children, youth and families had been reached.
Background variables included the respondent's role (municipal manager, director of health services), province of residence, and the number of inhabitants in the municipality.
100 municipalities were randomly sampled from the municipality list of the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities. The respondents were municipal managers and directors of health services.