Scottish Health and Care Experience Survey 2013/14 - Technical Report

Scottish Health and Care Experience Survey 2013/14. This is a postal survey which was sent to a random sample of patients who were registered with a GP in Scotland in October 2013. This report contains details of the survey design and development.


8 Survey Response

Overview

8.1 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, 584,070 surveys were sent to patients and 112,970 were returned completed, giving an overall response rate of 19 per cent. This was lower than the expected overall response rate of 23 per percent, based on response rates to previous surveys of this type.

Overall response rates for NHS Board areas

8.2 The highest response rate for an NHS Board was Orkney (31%) and the lowest response rate was for Greater Glasgow and Clyde (15%). No NHS Board met or exceeded their expected response rate (Table 4). The calculations for the expected response rates are detailed in section 4.8 of this report.

Table 4 Response rate by NHS Board

NHS Board

Total Forms sent out

Number of Responses

Response Rate (%)

Expected Response
Rate (%)

NHS Ayrshire & Arran

32,450

6,530

20

25

NHS Borders

9,434

2,576

27

35

NHS Dumfries & Galloway

14,679

3,945

27

33

NHS Fife

30,453

6,358

21

28

NHS Forth Valley

31,021

6,538

21

26

NHS Grampian

38,847

8,720

22

29

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

189,291

29,062

15

18

NHS Highland

41,122

11,138

27

32

NHS Lanarkshire

72,811

12,837

18

22

NHS Lothian

77,371

14,429

19

23

NHS Orkney

3,074

963

31

40

NHS Shetland

3,936

1,015

26

33

NHS Tayside

35,090

7,726

22

28

NHS Western Isles

4,491

1,133

25

30

Scotland

584,070

112,970

19

23

Response rates for GP Practices

8.3 Patients at smaller practices were no more likely to respond than those at larger practices (Table 5).

Table 5 Response rate by practice list size

GP Practice List size

Total Forms
sent out

Number of
Responses

Response
Rate (%)

<2500

92,722

19,799

21

2500 - 4999

173,270

32,659

19

5000 - 7499

143,477

27,246

19

7500 - 9999

103,164

20,218

20

10000+

71,437

13,048

18

Scotland

584,070

112,970

19

Response rate by patient characteristics

8.4 As expected, the response rate was lower for patients living in deprived areas. This was taken into account when the sample sizes were calculated (see Chapter 4 on Sample Design). The response rate ranged from 13 per cent for the patients living in the most deprived areas to 24 per cent for patients living in the least deprived areas (Table 6).

Table 6 Response rate by deprivation quintile

Deprivation

Total Forms
sent out

Number of
Responses

Response
Rate (%)

1 - Most Deprived

147,805

19,443

13

2

119,995

20,639

17

3

122,860

26,566

22

4

102,139

24,237

24

5 - Least Deprived

89,101

21,763

24

Unknown

2,170

322

15

Scotland

584,070

112,970

19

Note: Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) 2012

Response rate by patient urban/rural location

8.5 The response rate ranged from 16 per cent of patients living in large urban areas to 29 per cent of patients living in remote rural areas (Table 7).

Table 7 Response rate by patient urban/rural location

Urban/Rural

Total Forms
sent out

Number of
Responses

Response
Rate (%)

Large Urban Areas

275,369

43,255

16

Other Urban Areas

139,731

27,151

19

Accessible Small Towns

39,479

8,651

22

Remote Small Towns

15,331

3,583

23

Accessible Rural

58,361

14,466

25

Remote Rural

53,629

15,542

29

Unknown

2,170

322

15

Scotland

584,070

112,970

19

Response rate by patient age group

8.6 The response rate increased with age and was highest in the 65+ age group (37%). This compared to a response rate of just seven per cent for those aged 17-34 (Table 8).

Table 8 Response rate by age group

Age

Total Forms
sent out

Number of
Responses

Response
Rate (%)

17 - 34

180,062

12,634

7

35 - 49

150,525

20,674

14

50 - 64

137,713

36,499

27

65 +

115,770

43,163

37

Scotland

584,070

112,970

19

Response rate by patient gender

8.7 The response rate was higher for females (22%) than it was for males (17%) (Table 9).

Table 9 Response rate by gender

Age

Total Forms
sent out

Number of
Responses

Response
Rate (%)

Male

290,658

48,688

17

Female

293,412

64,282

22

Scotland

584,070

112,970

19

Method of response

8.8 Of the 112,970 respondents, the majority (91%) sent their surveys back in the post. A total of 9,615 completed their survey online, of which 456 completed the survey using a JAWS reader (Table 10).

Table 10 Method of response

Method

Number of Questionnaires completed

Questionnaires completed (%)

Completed (hardcopy)

103,355

91

Completed (web)

9,159

8

Completed (web - JAWS)

456

0

Scotland

112,970

100

Note: JAWS is a screen reading software product that is accessible to the visually impaired. it is believed that many of those who completed the jaws version of the online survey did not actually have a visual impairment.

Contact

Email: Andrew Paterson

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