Interviewer instructions
Asking about total days of illness and off of work due to the diseases or injuries
in the last 4 weeks
Question 7 refers to days off of work, or unable to perform regular activities due to
disease or injury contracted in the last 4 weeks. Regular activities is defined as activities35
regularly performed in a certain time period, including work defined in section 4 and other
activities such as housework, school attendance, etc. For example, if a pupil has to stay out of
school for 3 days; a worker has to stay out of the workplace for 5 days due to illness, a housewife
has to abstain from housework for 8 days.
Question 7, for small children, their regular activities are difficult to define. The
interviewer has to appear flexible and count the days they received better care, or they had to
sleep more.
For persons with chronic diseases, question 7 should be asked in relation to the time prior
to this disease, not in relation to the last week since they have contracted this disease for a long
time and their regular activities have already been affected by this disease for a long time.
Days recorded in question 7 must be smaller than or as many as days recorded in question
6. If a person say that they have been sick and been confined to hospital for 7 days in the last 4
weeks. After hospital discharge, he/she stayed for 4 days more. For this case, record 11 to
question 6 and question 7. If a person says that days he/she stayed out of work are greater than
days during illness, such a difference in days is not calculated as days off work or unable to
perform regular activities due to illness