The use of the FHSA (family health services authority) registration index for a health needs survey.

The FHSA patient registration index was used as a sampling frame for a population questionnaire survey. The main survey of 3,359 was preceded by a pilot study of 250. Ethical issues such as anonymity and release of data were addressed in order to obtain the approval of the ethical committee and LMC. The acceptability to GPs and the public of using FHSA Registration data was tested. The validity of the survey was indicated by the proportion of wrong addresses, the response rate and the representativeness of the sample and responders. Appropriate software is needed for selecting a random sample and producing address labels.