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

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