Privacy statement Youth Health monitor 2026

In this privacy statement for the Youth Health Monitor 2026, we inform you and your parent(s)/guardian(s) about the personal data that we process as GGD, how we collect it and for what purposes we use it. In addition, we inform you about your rights as a data subject and how you can contact the person who supervises our handling of personal data: the Data Protection Officer.

What is the Youth Health Monitor?

The GGD conducts research into the health, well-being and lifestyle of young people at least once every four years. This study is called the Youth Health Monitor.

The Youth Health Monitor 2026 will be carried out in the autumn of 2026. Pupils in classes 2 and 4 of secondary education complete a digital questionnaire in the classroom at school. The monitor is carried out in the same way and at the same time of year throughout the Netherlands. Most schools in the Netherlands make time available in the schedule so that the research can be carried out. The research lasts a maximum of 1 lesson and often takes place during a mentor hour.

The GGDs are carrying out the study at the request of all municipalities in the Netherlands and the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS). The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport has commissioned the RIVM (National Institute for Public Health and the Environment) to support the GGDs in carrying out the research. GGD GHOR Nederland (the national association of GGDs) also supports the GGDs in carrying out the Youth Health Monitor.

Goal of the Youth Health Monitor 2026

In the Netherlands, we think it is important that young people grow up healthy. In order to know what needs to be done to give young people the best possible chance of growing up healthy, we need to know how young people are doing. We do this by collecting information over time. This way we know how young people are doing at a certain time and we can check whether certain measures or policies have had a positive influence. We can also estimate which measures may have a positive effect on health in the future.

The Youth Health Monitor 2026 is carried out with the following goals:

• Gaining insight into the health, well-being and lifestyle of young people in classes 2 and 4 of secondary education as a group
• Tracking the health situation of the group over time
• Developing local and national policies to promote the health of young people
• To bring the health situation of young people to the attention of schools and to encourage schools to develop targeted preventive health policies.

The research

For the study, students fill in a digital questionnaire at school. No name, address, social security number or other contact details are requested. Also, no personal login code or any other means are used to determine who completed the questionnaire. All students from classes 2 and 4 of a school complete the questionnaire via the same school-specific URL. The researchers cannot see who completed the questionnaire.

Participation in the questionnaire is voluntary. The more students participate, the better the insight into the health of young people. The Youth Health Monitor 2026 is based on the principle that it does not collect any directly identifiable personal data (e.g. name, address, citizen service number (BSN) or other contact details). Indirect traceability (through a specific combination of answers) is very unlikely, but cannot be completely ruled out.

The questionnaire

The questionnaire covers the following topics:

• Background data: grade, education, age, gender, zip code/city, family composition, height and weight
• Perceived health, happiness, mental health, resilience, confidence in the future, loneliness, stress, pressure to perform, resilience, negative sexual experience, suicidal thoughts
• Worries at home, social support, difficulty making ends meet, divorce parents
• Functioning at school
• Sport and exercise, swimming diploma
• Alcohol consumption, smoking, vaping, drug use
• Bullying, physical violence
• Social media use
• LGBTI+
• Sleep
• Hearing
• (Online) security

For a preview copy of the questionnaire, click here.

Students answer the questions asked by choosing one or more of the multiple choice answers that best suits their situation.

Basis for the implementation of the Youth Health Monitor 2026

GGD Brabant-Zuidoost carries out this research on the basis of a public task, namely monitoring public health on the basis of the Public Health Act (Wpg) (Article 2(2)(a) and (b) Wpg). The Wpg states that municipalities have this task carried out by the GGD.

The GGD has a basis for processing special personal data in Article 9(2)(i) of the GDPR: the data processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest. That task is laid down in the Wpg.

When carrying out the Youth Health Monitor 2026, the GGD only asks for the data that is necessary for the performance of the above-mentioned statutory task.

What data does GGD Brabant-Zuidoost process?

The Youth Health Monitor 2026 does not ask for personal data that can be traced directly to you/your child. As a result, in principle, the link cannot be made between a completed questionnaire and a specific student. We do want to know in which neighborhood students live, because we make reports for municipalities. That is why we ask for the postcode or place of residence of pupils. In very exceptional situations, a student can theoretically still be traced back through a combination of the completed questions. That is an unintended side effect. The aim of the study is to get a picture of the health, lifestyle and well-being of the entire group, not of individuals.  It has been examined whether the Health Monitor can be carried out with less or without personal data. This turns out not to be possible, because otherwise it cannot be determined in which neighborhood a student lives. GGD Brabant-Zuidoost is taking measures to minimise the risk of traceability in practice. The researchers do not have access to the full postal codes, these are already converted to district names prior to delivery of the data.

What does GGD Brabant-Zuidoost do with your data/your child’s data?

GGD Brabant-Zuidoost is carrying out the following activities:

• Analyzing the answers from the questionnaires for insights at group level
• Based on the data collected, reports for municipalities and schools are made by the GGD. Results are broken down by subgroups, such as grade level, gender and education level. The reports do not contain any traceable personal data of pupils. The reports are never described at an individual level, but only at the group level of young people together.

RIVM uses the data collected in the Youth Health Monitor 2026 for research and publications. Here too, recognition of a student is not possible. The reports only describe groups of students and not individuals.

Participation in the Youth Health Monitor 2026 is voluntary

On the basis of the public task, pupils may be approached to participate in the survey and the answers from the questionnaire may be used.

You and your parent(s)/guardian(s) will receive information about the study from the school in advance so that you know what students can expect while completing the questionnaire. Before the start of the questionnaire, it is explained to the students again that there will be questions about health, lifestyle and well-being.

Participation in the Youth Health Monitor 2026 is voluntary. You can indicate that you do not want to participate in the study. Your parent(s)/guardian(s) can also indicate in advance that you will not participate if you do not want to.

You can also stop your participation at any time during the questionnaire while completing the questionnaire. You can also skip questions if you don’t want to fill them in. Data is stored from the start of filling in the questionnaire, even if the questionnaire is not completed completely. If you want to stop halfway and don’t want the previously filled answers to be saved, you have to go back into the questionnaire and delete the answers. You will receive an explanation in advance of how to do this.

Who has access to the entered data?

• Within GGD Brabant-Zuidoost, only researchers who are responsible for processing the research data have access to the entered data. Other people are not allowed access. The answers are treated and processed very confidentially. In addition, the researchers have signed a confidentiality agreement and are also subject to a confidentiality obligation under the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation).
• The GGDs use an external party (Ipsos I&O) to enable the technical administration of the digital questionnaire and the temporary data storage. Ipsos I&O is therefore a processor of the GGD. Ipsos I&O is bound by strict conditions such as security measures and confidentiality. A processing agreement has been concluded with Ipsos I&O in which these conditions are described.
• A committee consisting of six researchers from six GGDs and one researcher from RIVM can decide to share a selection of the data with third parties for research. The GGDs and the RIVM ensure that students cannot be recognized in the shared data. GGD Brabant-Zuidoost may also decide to share data with third parties for research. In that case, GGD Brabant-Zuidoost agrees with that researcher that the data will be protected at least as well as at the GGD itself. Data is never sold or provided to a third party for commercial purposes.
• We previously indicated that RIVM also has a role in the Youth Health Monitor. RIVM itself has a task under the RIVM Act to report on the state and future development of public health. As a result, RIVM is responsible for processing the basic questionnaires together with the GGDs. You can read how they deal with the data from the Health Monitor on their website. RIVM also treats the data confidentially, limits access to the data to a minimum and does not publish any traceable data. We have made agreements with RIVM in a covenant about the processing of personal data collected within the Youth Health Monitor.

How do we protect the data?

The GGD considers privacy very important. For each question, it is determined whether it is necessary for the research. The reports are always at group level.

In addition, all parties take technical and organisational measures to ensure that the completed questionnaires are properly secured.

How long is the data collected kept?

The Youth Health Monitor aims to monitor the health situation of young people over time (monitoring). We also use the data to give advice to municipalities and to see whether advice implemented by the municipality has had an effect on the health situation of young people. This means that GGD Brabant-Zuidoost must also be able to use previously completed questionnaires in the future.

As a government organization, GGD Brabant-Zuidoost must comply with the Public Records Act. Because of this law, certain documents and data from investigations must be kept forever. This is laid down in the VNG Selection List 2020.

This is allowed by the GDPR. This law makes an exception for data that is kept for the public interest, scientific or historical research, or statistics. In doing so, organizations must take good measures to protect people’s privacy. Because the retention of this research data is done in the context of archiving in the public interest, the personal data may be kept forever.

RIVM also keeps the completed questionnaires so that it can support the GGDs. This is laid down in the agreements between the GGDs and the RIVM. RIVM uses its own retention periods. You can find more information about this in the RIVM privacy statement.

What rights do you have?

You and your parent(s)/guardian(s) have the following rights in relation to the study:

• Right to information
  This online privacy statement has been drawn up to comply with this. The information email that you and your parent(s)/guardian(s) receive from the school refers to this privacy statement.
• Right not to participate in the Youth Health Monitor
  Participation in the Youth Health Monitor 2026 is voluntary. Participation may be cancelled at any time without giving any reason. You and your parent(s)/guardian(s) will receive an email from the school with information about the study. Both you and your parent(s)/guardian(s) can indicate in advance that you will not participate in the study if you do not want to. If you participate, you fill in the digital questionnaire during a lesson in the classroom. You can skip questions or stop filling them in at any time.

The following GDPR rights cannot be exercised in this investigation:

• Right of access, correction, restriction, objection, data portability, oblivion and deletion.

You can invoke these rights. However, because we do not know who completed which questionnaire, we cannot comply with your request. This may be different if you provide us with additional information. Whether the additional information is sufficient to find out which questionnaire you have completed is something we have to assess on a case-by-case basis.

Do you want to invoke one of the rights under the latest bullit? Then you can make this known via this form.

Are you 11 years old or younger? Then only your parent(s) or guardian(s) can exercise these rights for you. Are you between 12 and 16 years old? Then you can only exercise these rights together with your parent(s) or guardian(s). If you are 16 years or older, you can exercise these rights independently – i.e. without your parent(s) or guardian(s).

No automatic decision-making

In the context of the Youth Health Monitor, no decisions about you are made by a fully automated system. This means that there is always a human being watching the decision-making process.

Who can you contact with questions?

If you have any questions about the study or how GGD Brabant-Zuidoost deals with questionnaires, you can contact the Research Department of the GGD via gmjeugd@ggdbzo.nl.

Our regional frequently asked questions contain answers to the most frequently asked questions.

The GGD GHOR has also drawn up an overview of national frequently asked questions . Here you will find answers to the most frequently asked questions about privacy and health screenings at school.

Do you have questions about how we handle your personal data/your child’s personal data? Or do you have a complaint about the processing of your personal data/the personal data of your child? Please contact the Data Protection Officer (DPO) of GGD Brabant-Zuidoost via functionarisgegevensbescherming@ggdbzo.nl or the complaints officer via one of the options on this page of our website.

Have you filed a complaint and are you not satisfied with how we have handled your complaint? Then you can turn to the Dutch Data Protection Authority (AP) to file a complaint. This can be done via the website Een tip of klacht indienen bij de AP | Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens

This privacy statement was adopted on August 18, 2026.