NI Life and Times Survey

Suppose some university researchers are studying the causes of Parkinson's disease. They are allowed to see bits of health records including medical information about patients as well as their age, sex and occupation. However they are not allowed to see names, addresses or postcodes. But the researchers are very keen to know roughly where patients live because some people think that there is a link between Parkinson's disease and living near fields where pesticides have been used. There is an easy way that the NHS staff could link the postcodes of their patients to other agricultural data held to see how close the nearest fields are. Should the NHS staff be allowed to pass on the distance to the nearest fields while still keeping postcodes private?

	%
Yes definitely	51
Yes probably	36
No probably not	6
No definitely not	4
Don't know	3

Go to results for men and women, people of different religions, and people of different ages.
Go to technical notes

Results for men and women

	%
	Male	Female
Yes definitely	55	47
Yes probably	33	39
No probably not	5	7
No definitely not	4	4
Don't know	3	4

Results for people of different ages

	%
	18-24	25-34	35-44	45-54	55-64	65+
Yes definitely	58	49	50	51	50	49
Yes probably	29	39	35	33	37	39
No probably not	7	8	6	6	4	5
No definitely not	2	0	5	8	6	3
Don't know	5	4	5	2	2	3

Results for people of different religions

	%
	Catholic	Protestant	No religion
Yes definitely	57	48	45
Yes probably	31	40	39
No probably not	6	5	9
No definitely not	3	5	3
Don't know	3	3	4