Consultation on the questionnaire content of the Scottish Health Survey

Scope of the questionnaire review

The SHeS Project Board ^[3] agreed on the following parameters within which the questionnaire review should occur, while maintaining or improving current response rates.

• The review should seek to reduce the overall length of the questionnaire by approximately 20% , since interviews are currently over-running compared to expectations at the beginning of the current contract period by around ten minutes for one adult interview, and to reduce the overall respondent burden and therefore improve response rates. This may involve trimming some modules to remove questions which are not widely used. Similarly, some full blocks of questions may be removed if not widely used. Full details on questionnaire length are provided at the following web address: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Health/scottish-health-survey/SurveyDesignContent
• The survey should meet new user requirements, so the review should consider where new questions, topics or modes of data collection should be added to the survey.
• The review should consider whether the survey should follow a more 'modular' structure while continuing to meet local needs . Currently, the sample is designed to produce representative results for NHS health boards every four years. This depends on including the same survey questions every year to ensure sample sizes are sufficient for analysis at board level. Therefore, sample sizes and question frequency for key measures should continue to enable analysis at health board level.
• The review should seek to maintain valuable time series .
• However, it should also demonstrate where it is important that questions are included in the survey every year or asked of the full sample. Likewise, the review should clarify the importance of linking information to other topics covered by the survey.