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Publication - Statistics

Health and Care Experience Survey 2021 to 2022: technical report

Published
10 May 2022
Directorate
Population Health Directorate, +3 more … Health and Social Care Finance Directorate, Chief Operating Officer, NHS Scotland Directorate, Healthcare Quality and Improvement Directorate
Topic
Health and social care
ISBN
9781804353868

This report provides information on the technical aspects of the 2021/22 Health and Care Experience 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, 537,924 surveys were sent out and 130,352 were returned completed, giving an overall response rate of 24 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 130,352 respondents, 59 per cent completed the survey online with 41 per cent sending their surveys back by post. This represents a large increase in online completions compared with 2019/20 when 51 per cent of respondents completed it online. Changing behaviours as a result of the COVID pandemic and the national lockdown are likely to have contributed to this shift. One hundred and sixty six people completed their survey via the telephone (Table 6) and nineteen people completed their survey via the language line.

Table 6: Response by method
Method Number of questionnaires completed Questionnaires completed (%)
Online 76,418 59
Post 53,749 41
Telephone helpline 166 0
Language line 19 0
Scotland 130,352 100

Response Rates for GP Practices

Larger practices had a slightly higher response rate than small or medium sized practices (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 67,060 16,426 24
2,500 to 4,999 148,730 34,365 23
5,000 to 7,499 139,315 33,281 24
7,500 to 9,999 107,152 26,664 25
10,000 + 75,667 19,616 26
Scotland 537,924 130,352 24

Response rates for Health and Social Care Partnerships

Response rates by the Health and Social Care Partnership of the GP practice are shown in Table 8. The highest response rate was 38 per cent; achieved in Orkney. The lowest response rate was for Glasgow City at 16 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 15,219 3,663 24
Aberdeenshire 12,783 4,196 33
Angus 7,928 2,444 31
Argyll and Bute 12,970 4,070 31
Clackmannanshire and Stirling 12,654 3,578 28
Dumfries and Galloway 13,761 4,565 33
Dundee City 14,989 3,186 21
East Ayrshire 9,659 2,387 25
East Dunbartonshire 8,146 2,425 30
East Lothian 6,866 2,156 31
East Renfrewshire 9,962 2,458 25
Edinburgh 43,282 10,102 23
Falkirk 13,417 3,489 26
Fife 29,834 8,019 27
Glasgow City 116,978 18,562 16
Highland 27,629 9,008 33
Inverclyde 8,401 1,949 23
Midlothian 6,346 1,772 28
Moray 5,375 1,862 35
North Ayrshire 11,138 2,772 25
North Lanarkshire 36,606 7,327 20
Orkney Islands 2,583 971 38
Perth and Kinross 11,049 3,519 32
Renfrewshire 19,428 4,375 23
Scottish Borders 10,168 3,528 35
Shetland Islands 3,587 1,197 33
South Ayrshire 9,554 2,756 29
South Lanarkshire 29,748 7,457 25
West Dunbartonshire 10,739 2,302 21
West Lothian 13,095 3,094 24
Western Isles 4,030 1,163 29
Scotland 537,924 130,352 24

Response Rate by Deprivation

Those who were sent a survey were assigned to a deprivation quintile based on their postcode using the 2020 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 15 per cent for people living in the most deprived areas to 32 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) 137,214 21,251 15
2 109,071 23,497 22
3 114,241 31,151 27
4 95,929 28,629 30
5 (Least deprived) 81,469 25,824 32
Scotland 537,924 130,352 24

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[5]. The response rate ranged from 19 per cent of people living in large urban areas to 34 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 225,694 43,665 19
Other urban areas 156,507 37,916 24
Accessible small towns 36,381 10,053 28
Remote small towns 14,572 4,160 29
Accessible rural 56,186 17,876 32
Remote rural 48,584 16,682 34
Scotland 537,924 130,352 24

Response Rate by Age Group[6]

The response rate increased with age and was highest in the 65+ age group (44 per cent). This compared to a response rate of 10 per cent for those aged 17-34 (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 57,152 5,464 10
25 to 34 93,029 9,577 10
35 to 44 89,621 12,886 14
45 to 54 88,226 19,323 22
55 to 64 91,119 30,326 33
65 + 118,777 52,776 44
Scotland 537,924 130,352 24

Response Rate by Sex6

The response rate was higher for females (27 per cent) than it was for males (21 per cent) (Table 12).

Table 12: Response rate by sex
Sex Total number of forms sent out Number of Responses Response rate (%)
Female 270,606 73,759 27
Male 267,318 56,593 21
Scotland 537,924 130,352 24

Contact

Email: patientexperience@gov.scot

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