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
There is a problem
Thanks for your feedback