Health and care experience survey 2017 to 2018: technical report

7. Survey Response

Overview

The response rate for the survey is the number of forms returned as a percentage of the number of people in the sample. In total, 611,638 surveys were sent out and 132,972 were returned completed, giving an overall response rate of 22 per cent.

This section describes the differences in response rates by a range of variables. Many of these differences were also evident in previous surveys, and were taken into account when the sample sizes were calculated – see Section 4 on Sample Design for more information about this.

Response Rates for GP Practices

The response rate was relatively consistent across practices of all sizes (Table 6).

Table 6: Response rate by practice list size

GP Practice List Size	Total number of forms sent out *	Number of Responses	Response rate (%)
< 2,500	86,000	20,152	23
2,500 to 4,999	174,867	36,057	21
5,000 to 7,499	160,503	34,636	22
7,500 to 9,999	112,015	24,603	22
10,000 +	78,251	17,524	22
Scotland	611,638	132,972	22

* Column does not sum to total, due to 2 people who declined to participate in the survey and requested that their information be deleted.

Response rates for Health and Social Care Partnerships

Response rates by Health and Social Care Partnership are shown in Table 7. The highest response rate was 31 per cent; achieved in Aberdeenshire, Dumfries & Galloway and Orkney. The lowest response rate was for Glasgow City (15 per cent).

Table 7: Response rate by Health and Social Care Partnership

Partnership	Total number of forms sent out *	Number of responses	Response rate (%)
Aberdeen City	18,556	4,244	23
Aberdeenshire	16,677	5,121	31
Angus	8,641	2,488	29
Argyll and Bute	14,649	4,027	27
Clackmannanshire and Stirling	15,842	4,031	25
Dumfries and Galloway	16,071	4,986	31
Dundee City	17,412	3,539	20
East Ayrshire	11,067	2,374	21
East Dunbartonshire	10,318	2,520	24
East Lothian	8,817	2,522	29
East Renfrewshire	9,407	2,019	21
Edinburgh	47,949	10,327	22
Falkirk	16,592	3,815	23
Fife	34,197	7,781	23
Glasgow City	123,429	18,019	15
Highland	30,808	8,815	29
Inverclyde	10,446	1,965	19
Midlothian	7,698	1,977	26
Moray	6,955	2,029	29
North Ayrshire	13,825	2,966	21
North Lanarkshire	43,902	7,837	18
Orkney Islands	2,802	872	31
Perth and Kinross	12,023	3,404	28
Renfrewshire	20,694	4,074	20
Scottish Borders	10,933	3,072	28
Shetland Islands	4,896	1,415	29
South Ayrshire	10,661	2,745	26
South Lanarkshire	34,534	7,107	21
West Dunbartonshire	11,684	2,307	20
West Lothian	15,457	3,230	21
Western Isles	4,694	1,344	29
Scotland	611,638	132,972	22

* Column does not sum to total, due to 2 people who declined to participate in the survey and requested that their information be deleted.

Response Rate by Deprivation

Respondents were assigned to a deprivation quintile based on their postcode using the 2016 Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD)^[4]. As seen in previous surveys, the response rate was lower for people living in deprived areas. The response rate ranged from 14 per cent for people living in the most deprived areas to 28 per cent for people living in the least deprived areas (Table 8).

Table 8: Response rate by deprivation quintile

SIMD Quintile	Total number of forms sent out *	Number of Responses	Response rate (%)
1 (Most deprived)	153,298	21,943	14
2	125,581	24,850	20
3	128,896	31,621	25
4	110,840	28,902	26
5 (Least deprived)	93,021	25,656	28
Scotland	611,638	132,972	22

* Column does not sum to total, due to 2 people who declined to participate in the survey and requested that their information be deleted.

Response Rate by Urban / Rural Location

Respondents were assigned to an Urban / Rural category based on their postcode using the Scottish Government’s 2013/14 six-fold Urban / Rural classification^[5]. The response rate ranged from 18 per cent of people living in large urban areas to 31 per cent of people living in remote rural areas (Table 9).

Table 9: Response rate by urban / rural location

Urban / Rural Category	Total number of forms sent out *	Number of Responses	Response rate (%)
Large urban areas	247,368	44,136	18
Other urban areas	178,876	37,432	21
Accessible small towns	45,828	10,844	24
Remote small towns	16,614	4,317	26
Accessible rural	66,760	18,798	28
Remote rural	56,190	17,445	31
Scotland	611,638	132,972	22

* Column does not sum to total, due to 2 people who declined to participate in the survey and requested that their information be deleted.

Response Rate by Age Group^[6]

The response rate increased with age and was highest in the 65+ age group (43 per cent). This compared to a response rate of just six per cent for those aged 17-34 (Table 10).

Table 10: Response rate by age group

Age Group	Total number of forms sent out *	Number of Responses	Response rate (%)
17 to 24	67,531	4,339	6
25 to 34	105,709	8,185	8
35 to 44	97,453	11,948	12
45 to 54	110,330	20,960	19
55 to 64	98,102	30,704	31
65 +	132,511	56,836	43
Scotland	611,638	132,972	22

* Column does not sum to total, due to 2 people who declined to participate in the survey and requested that their information be deleted.

Response Rate by Gender^[6]

The response rate was higher for females (24 per cent) than it was for males (19 per cent) (Table 11).

Table 11: Response rate by gender

Gender	Total number of forms sent out *	Number of Responses	Response rate (%)
Male	303,660	57,747	19
Female	307,976	75,225	24
Scotland	611,638	132,972	22

* Column does not sum to total, due to 2 people who declined to participate in the survey and requested that their information be deleted.

Method of Response

Of the 132,972 respondents, 60 per cent sent their surveys back by post with almost all of the rest completing the survey online. One hundred and forty people completed their survey via the telephone (Table 12).

This is a different pattern of response methods than was seen in previous surveys, when around 90 per cent of responses were by post. The reason for this is the introduction of an initial letter this year, which included only a link to the online survey and telephone helpline. This resulted in an increase in the proportion of responses via these methods.

Table 12: Response by method

Method	Number of questionnaires completed	Questionnaires completed (%)
Online *	53,269	40
Post	79,563	60
Telephone helpline	133	0
Language line	7	0
Scotland	132,972	100

* Includes 2,873 completions via the telephone helpline