Scottish Health Survey 2015 - volume 1: main report

Editors' acknowledgements

We firstly wish to thank the 5,000 adults and 1,421 children across Scotland for giving up their time to take part in the 2015 survey and for welcoming our interviewers into their home.

We would also like to thank those colleagues who contributed to the survey and this report. In particular we would like to thank:

• The interviewers who worked on the project. The success of the survey is in large part down to the commitment and professionalism they apply to their work every day.
• Shanna Christie, for her hard work on the Scottish Health Survey over the years.
• The authors of the chapters: Laura Brown, Diarmid Campbell-Jack, Linsay Gray, Peter Hovald, Gemma Kirkpatrick, Alastair H Leyland, Ian Montagu and Joe Rose.
• Laura Brown, whose hard work and expertise have been crucial in preparing the survey data, and for conducting much of the analysis in this report.
• Other research colleagues, in particular: Lesley Birse, Andy MacGregor (ScotCen Social Research); Emma Bowey, Sophie Brown, Rachel Craig, Leigh Marshall (NatCen Social Research).
• Emma Fenn and colleagues in the NatCen Social Research Operations team.
• The area manager Julie Foster, field performance managers Claire Hamilton, Susan Mason, Ross McManus and Janette Read as well as Jo Taylor, national field nurse manager, Christine Bidwell and Sue Nash and the team of nurse supervisors.
• The principal programmer, Iain Templeton.
• Bryan Mason and the team of dedicated coders.
• The Survey Doctor, Dr Sangeeta Dhami.

We would also like to express our thanks Dr Linda Wilson of the Freeman Hospital, Newcastle, and the laboratory staff at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle, and to Dr Colin Feyerabend and colleagues at ABS Laboratories in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, for their continuing helpfulness and efficiency in processing and analysing the saliva and urine samples on the study.

Ethical approval for the study was granted by the Research Committee for Wales (12/ WA/0261). We are grateful to the committee, and its co-ordinator Dr Corrine Scott, for their careful scrutiny and on-going support.

Finally, special thanks are due to Julie Landsberg, Craig Kellock, Daniel Adams and colleagues in the Scottish Government Health Directorates, for their continued support at all stages of the project.

Diarmid Campbell-Jack, Stephen Hinchliffe and Lisa Rutherford