Scottish Health and Care Experience Survey 2015/16 - Technical Report

Scottish Health and Care Experience Survey 2015/16. This is a postal survey which was sent to a random sample of patients who were registered with a GP in Scotland in October 2015. This report contains details of the survey design and development.


7 Survey Response

Overview

7.1 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, 711,159 surveys were sent to patients and 111,611 were returned completed, giving an overall response rate of 16 per cent. This was lower than the expected overall response rate of 19 per cent, which was the response rate to the previous survey.

Overall response rates for NHS Board areas

7.2 The highest response rate for an NHS Board was Orkney (29 per cent) and the lowest response rate was for Greater Glasgow and Clyde (12 per cent). 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 39,849 6,621 17 20
NHS Borders 12,160 2,970 24 27
NHS Dumfries & Galloway 18,049 4,306 24 27
NHS Fife 40,551 7,187 18 21
NHS Forth Valley 38,079 6,320 17 21
NHS Grampian 50,232 9,084 18 22
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde 224,152 26,662 12 15
NHS Highland 48,731 11,127 23 27
NHS Lanarkshire 87,714 11,483 13 18
NHS Lothian 94,184 14,365 15 19
NHS Orkney 3,937 1,123 29 31
NHS Shetland 5,081 1,069 21 26
NHS Tayside 43,735 8,354 19 22
NHS Western Isles 4,703 940 20 25
Total 711,157* 111,611 16 19

*Note 2 patients asked to be removed from the survey and are not included in this analysis.

Response rates for GP Practices

7.3 Patients at smaller practices were somewhat 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 100,700 18,004 18
2500-4999 212,403 32,250 15
5000-7499 181,318 28,444 16
7500-9999 126,628 19,869 16
1000+ 90,108 13,044 14
Scotland 711,157 111,611 16

Response rate by patient characteristics

7.4 As seen in previous surveys, the response rate was lower for patients living in deprived areas. This was taken into account when the sample sizes were calculated (see section 4 on Sample Design). The response rate ranged from 11 per cent for the patients living in the most deprived areas to 21 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 162,840 17,860 11
2 156,025 22,196 14
3 148,078 24,347 16
4 130,820 24,072 18
5=least deprived 111,407 22,925 21
Unknown 1,987 211 11
Scotland 711,157 111,611 16

Note: Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation ( SIMD) 2012

Response rate by patient urban/rural location

7.5 The response rate ranged from 13 per cent of patients living in large urban areas to 25 per cent of patients living in remote rural areas ( Table 7).

Table 7 Response rate by patient urban/rural location

Deprivation Total forms sent out Number of Responses Response Rate (%)
Large Urban Areas 283,444 35,875 13
Other Urban Areas 207,092 31,108 15
Accessible Small Towns 49,474 8,856 18
Remote Small Towns 18,650 3,633 19
Accessible Rural 71,543 15,447 22
Remote Rural 61,077 15,188 25
Unknown 19,877 1,504 8
Scotland 711,157 111,611 16

Response rate by patient age group

7.6 The response rate increased with age and was highest in the 65+ age group (31 per cent). This compared to a response rate of just five 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 - 34 216,167 11,054 5
35 - 49 178,134 18,430 10
50 - 64 170,938 36,180 21
65 + 145,918 45,947 31
Scotland 711,157 111,611 16

Response rate by patient gender

7.7 The response rate was higher for females (18 per cent) than it was for males (13 per cent) ( Table 9).

Table 9 Response rate by gender

Age Total Forms sent out Number of Responses Response Rate (%)
Male 354,549 47,832 13
Female 356,608 63,779 18
Scotland 711,157 111,611 16

Method of response

7.8 Of the 111,611 respondents, the majority (90 per cent) sent their surveys back in the post. A total of 10,941 completed their survey online, 14 completed their survey over the telephone and 10 used the language line completion service ( Table 10).

Table 10 Method of response

Method No. of Questionnaires completed Questionnaires completed (%)
Completed (hardcopy) 100,646 90
Completed (web) 10,941 10
Completed (telephone) 14 0
Completed (language line) 10 0
Scotland 111,611 100

Contact

Back to top