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Publication - Statistics

Health and Care Experience Survey 2019/2020: technical report

Published
13 October 2020
Directorate
Population Health Directorate
Topic
Health and social care
ISBN
9781800041875

Report on the technical aspects of the survey, including development, implementation, analysis and reporting.

View supporting documents Supporting documents

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, 604,127 surveys were sent out and 160,372 were returned completed, giving an overall response rate of 27 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.

Method of Response

Of the 160,372 respondents, 52 per cent sent their surveys back by post with 47 per cent completing the survey online. Three hundred and forty-two people completed their survey via the telephone (Table 6) and thirteen people completed their survey via the language line.

Table 6: Response by method
Method Number of questionnaires completed Questionnaires completed (%)
Online 76,160 47
Post 83,857 52
Telephone helpline 342 0
Language line 13 0
Scotland 160,372 100

Response Rates for GP Practices

The response rate was relatively consistent across practices of all sizes (Table 7).

Table 7: Response rate by practice list size
GP Practice List Size Total number of forms sent out Number of Responses Response rate (%)
< 2,500 77,623 21,321 27
2,500 to 4,999 170,870 43,248 25
5,000 to 7,499 162,307 42,771 26
7,500 to 9,999 115,146 31,471 27
10,000 + 78,181 21,561 28
Scotland 604,127 160,372 27

Response rates for Health and Social Care Partnerships

Response rates by Health and Social Care Partnership are shown in Table 8. The highest response rate was 41 per cent; achieved in Orkney. The lowest response rate was for Glasgow City (18 per cent).

Table 8: Response rate by Health and Social Care Partnership
Partnership Total number of forms sent out Number of responses Response rate (%)
Aberdeen City 16,628 4,594 28
Aberdeenshire 14,296 5,355 37
Angus 8,558 2,870 34
Argyll and Bute 15,247 5,119 34
Clackmannanshire and Stirling 15,907 4,811 30
Dumfries and Galloway 14,842 5,308 36
Dundee City 16,690 3,930 24
East Ayrshire 11,526 3,127 27
East Dunbartonshire 9,516 3,064 32
East Lothian 7,559 2,633 35
East Renfrewshire 11,327 3,142 28
Edinburgh 46,019 11,415 25
Falkirk 15,834 4,568 29
Fife 35,181 10,475 30
Glasgow City 125,311 22,346 18
Highland 30,767 10,717 35
Inverclyde 10,532 2,485 24
Midlothian 6,864 2,060 30
Moray 6,411 2,237 35
North Ayrshire 13,004 3,436 26
North Lanarkshire 43,156 9,706 22
Orkney Islands 2,928 1,197 41
Perth and Kinross 12,917 4,460 35
Renfrewshire 21,195 4,984 24
Scottish Borders 11,886 4,325 36
Shetland Islands 4,544 1,707 38
South Ayrshire 10,804 3,418 32
South Lanarkshire 33,830 8,863 26
West Dunbartonshire 11,783 2,763 23
West Lothian 14,810 3,894 26
Western Isles 4,255 1,363 32
Scotland 604,127 160,372 27

Response Rate by Deprivation

Those who were sent a survey were assigned to a deprivation quintile based on their postcode using the 2016 Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD)[3]. As seen in previous surveys, the response rate was lower for people living in deprived areas. The response rate ranged from 18 per cent for people living in the most deprived areas to 34 per cent for people living in the least deprived areas (Table 9).

Table 9: Response rate by deprivation quintile
SIMD Quintile Total number of forms sent out Number of Responses Response rate (%)
1 (Most deprived) 154,012 27,183 18
2 123,731 29,693 24
3 126,643 37,345 29
4 109,987 35,486 32
5 (Least deprived) 89,754 30,665 34
Scotland 604,127 160,372 27

Response Rate by Urban / Rural Location

Respondents were assigned to an Urban / Rural category based on their postcode using the Scottish Government’s 2016 six-fold Urban / Rural classification[4]. The response rate ranged from 21 per cent of people living in large urban areas to 37 per cent of people living in remote rural areas (Table 10).

Table 10: Response rate by urban / rural location
Urban / Rural Category Total number of forms sent out Number of Responses Response rate (%)
Large urban areas 244,666 52,314 21
Other urban areas 184,014 48,677 26
Accessible small towns 42,715 12,617 30
Remote small towns 16,677 5,245 31
Accessible rural 61,818 21,367 35
Remote rural 54,237 20,152 37
Scotland 604,127 160,372 27

Response Rate by Age Group [5]

The response rate increased with age and was highest in the 65+ age group (48 per cent). This compared to a response rate of 11 per cent for those aged 17-24 (Table 11).

Table 11: Response rate by age group
Age Group Total number of forms sent out Number of Responses Response rate (%)
17 to 24 65,378 7,021 11
25 to 34 104,902 12,244 12
35 to 44 97,687 16,371 17
45 to 54 104,747 25,553 24
55 to 64 99,677 36,299 36
65 + 131,736 62,884 48
Scotland 604,127 160,372 27

Response Rate by Sex 5

The response rate was higher for females (30 per cent) than it was for males (23 per cent) (Table 12).

Table 12: Response rate by sex
Gender Total number of forms sent out Number of Responses Response rate (%)
Male 298,781 69,245 23
Female 305,346 91,127 30
Scotland 604,127 160,372 27

Contact

Email: patientexperience@gov.scot

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