Scottish Cancer Patient Experience Survey 2024: technical report

Survey Response

Response Rates

The response rate is calculated as the number of forms returned as a percentage of the number of eligible survey invite letters sent out.

Of the 8,800 invite letters initially mailed out, 16 people had moved, 124 people died during fieldwork and 20 were deemed ineligible for other reasons. After excluding these groups, 8,640 people were eligible to complete the survey. 10 people completed their questionnaire before dying. These responses are included in both the final eligible group and the completed surveys figure.

We received 4,540 completed surveys back, which gives a response rate of 53%. This is lower than the response rate achieved in the 2018 survey (62%).

The fall in the response rate is consistent with response rate trends seen in other surveys. The move to ‘push to online’ methodology, where the initial mailing encouraged survey recipients to complete the survey online and did not include a paper questionnaire may partially explain the fall in response rates. The benefit of the ‘push to online’ methodology is reduced mailing costs. Sampling from more up date databases so that there was a shorter period between hospital admission and being invited to complete the survey was expected to help survey response.

This section describes the differences in response rates by a range of variables.

Response Rates by Age Group

The response rate was the highest among the 65-74 age group (60%) and the lowest among the 16-64 age group (45%).

Response Rates by Sex

Response Rates by NHS Board of Residence

Response rates by the NHS Board of residence ranged from 48% in NHS Forth Valley and NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde to 68% in NHS Borders.

Response Rates by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation

Generally, response rates were higher from less deprived areas. A response rate of 40% was achieved for the most deprived quintile, while the least deprived quintile had a response rate of 59%. The highest response rate was in quintile 4 with 60% (Table 5).

Response Rates by 6-fold Urban/Rural Classification

The response rate was lowest in Large Urban Areas (49%) and highest in Accessible Rural and Remote Rural (both at 57%) (Table 6).

Response Rates by Cancer Group

The response rate by Cancer Group ranged from 44% for ‘other’ cancers to 57% for prostate cancer (Table 7). Other cancers include sarcomas, secondary cancers, malignant neoplasm of gall bladder and/or malignant neoplasm of other and unspecified parts of biliary tract, malignant neoplasm of peripheral nerves and autonomic nervous system, malignant neoplasm of eye and adnexa, and any other rarer cancers which are not classed as Less Survivable Cancers within the 2023 to 2033 Cancer Strategy for Scotland. Lung and oesophageal cancers are also classed as Less Survivable Cancers within the 2023 to 2033 Cancer Strategy for Scotland, however we have a sufficient number of responses from these groups to be able to report on them separately.

Method of Response

More than half (56%) of responses were submitted through the online questionnaire (Table 8). 33 telephone completions were submitted (1% of responses) and 1,970 (43%) paper responses were returned by post. No returns were completed through the language line.

About the respondents

The survey asks a number of questions about the characteristics of the survey respondents. Results for these questions are presented unweighted and are intended to illustrate the demographic profile of the survey respondents.

Excluding those who prefer not to say, 99% of respondents described themselves as straight / heterosexual, and 1% of respondents described themselves as another sexual orientation. Those who described themselves as bisexual, gay or lesbian, or other sexual orientation have been grouped into other sexual orientation to ensure that the number of responses in each category for this question is greater than 50.

Excluding those who prefer not to say, 98% of respondents described their ethnicity as white.

For the purposes of the analysis presented above, 'Minority ethnic groups' includes 'Mixed or multiple ethnic groups', 'Asian, Scottish Asian or British Asian', 'African, Scottish African or British African', 'Caribbean or Black', or 'Other ethnic group (any other ethnic group including Arab, Sikh, Jewish)'.

For the purposes of the analysis presented above, 'White' includes 'Gypsy/Traveller', 'Roma', 'Showman/Showwoman' and other white ethnic groups.

The majority (63%) of respondents described themselves as retired. 4% said that they couldn’t work due to cancer and 3% said they couldn’t work due to another illness or disability.

Excluding those who prefer not to say, 58% of respondents said that they did not have a physical or mental health condition lasting or expecting to last 12 months or more.

Those who said they had a physical or mental health condition lasting or expected to last 12 months or more were asked which condition or illness they were affected by. Respondents were able to tick more than one response option to this question, so the total number of responses is not equal to the sum of the individual conditions.

The most common answer was mobility (59%), followed by stamina or breathing, or fatigue (51%). The least common responses were vision (10%) and learning or understanding, or concentrating (11%). Detailed results are available in Table 13 below.

Note: respondents can tick more than one option, so we have not provided the total number of responses.

Excluding those who prefer not to say, 86% of those with a physical or mental health condition lasting or expected to last 12 months or more said that it reduced their ability to carry out day-to-day activities.