Scottish Surveys Core Questions 2014

9 Subnational Geographies

A key strength of the SSCQ is the ability to provide statistics at geographical levels smaller than Scotland as a whole. Results by local authority are available in the supplementary tables published alongside this report ^[49] . In this section we examine the relevant subnational geographies relating to the indicators, i.e. Health Boards and Police Scotland Divisions.

Where statistical testing is used to identify differences, contrasts are constructed to compare each area to the national average excluding that area, for example to check if Fife is significantly different to the rest of Scotland taken together.

Where p-values are provided, a value of less than 0.05 indicates statistical significance at the 95% level. For more information about statistical tests, see section 11.11.

9.1 General Health

"Good" or "Very good" general health varies between 69% and 80% across health boards. Lower levels can be found in Ayrshire & Arran and Dumfries & Galloway health boards. Higher levels are found in Orkney, Shetland, Lothian and Grampian.

Figure 23: General health by Health Board area, 2014

Across the time series, Lothian has remained above the national average on this indicator for the past three years (2012-14), and Grampian for the past two years (2013-14). Ayrshire & Arran is below national average in 2014, as it was in 2012. No other health boards differ significantly from the national average.

Table 78: General health by Health Board area; changes from 2013 and 2012

Health Board	2014		Change from 2013	Change from 2012
Ayrshire & Arran	69.4	± 2.6	-2.2	-0.1
Borders	72.9	± 4.7	-4.6	-3.1
Dumfries and Galloway	69.4	± 4.3	-5.3	-1.8
Fife	75.6	± 2.8	+1.5	+2.9
Forth Valley	75.3	± 2.8	-3.2	+2.0
Grampian	77.2	± 2.1	-1.4	+2.1
Greater Glasgow & Clyde	72.1	± 1.5	-0.3	+0.5
Highland	74.6	± 2.7	-3.5	-2.0
Lanarkshire	72.2	± 2.5	+2.1	+0.7
Lothian	78.6	± 1.8	-0.5	+2.0
Orkney	79.7	± 5.1	+2.0	-3.6
Shetland	79.2	± 5.4	+5.9	+3.1
Tayside	72.3	± 2.8	-4.1	-5.2
Western Isles	76.2	± 4.9	+0.3	-0.5
SCOTLAND	74.1	± 0.7	-1.0	+0.4

9.2 Long-term Limiting Health Conditions

Figure 24: Long-term limiting health conditions by Health Board Area, 2014

Ayrshire & Arran has the highest prevalence of limiting long-term health conditions at 28.7%, and has shown above average levels on this indicator throughout the timeseries from 2012. The level in Tayside is also higher than the national average (p=0.037) at 25.8%.

Grampian and Lothian have had consistently lower levels throughout the time series (2012-14). The rate in Lothian was 20.9% and in Grampain was 19.8% in 2014, both lower than the national average (p=0.017 and p<0.01 respectively).

Table 79: Long-term limiting health conditions by Health Board area; changes from 2013 and 2012

Health Board	2014		Change from 2013	Change from 2012
Ayrshire & Arran	28.7	± 2.5	+1.6	+0.5
Borders	23.5	± 4.3	-1.0	+0.3
Dumfries and Galloway	24.4	± 3.7	+1.3	-2.0
Fife	23.7	± 2.7	-2.0	-0.9
Forth Valley	21.3	± 2.6	+2.5	-0.0
Grampian	19.8	± 1.9	+1.2	-1.1
Greater Glasgow & Clyde	24.0	± 1.5	-0.0	-1.2
Highland	22.9	± 2.7	+3.2	-0.9
Lanarkshire	23.7	± 2.3	-0.7	-3.6
Lothian	20.9	± 1.7	+2.1	+0.1
Orkney	22.7	± 5.0	+6.8	+3.9
Shetland	21.1	± 5.3	-2.6	+0.0
Tayside	25.8	± 2.6	+3.5	+1.8
Western Isles	19.8	± 5.4	+0.4	+0.8
SCOTLAND	23.2	± 0.7	+1.0	-0.8

9.3 Smoking

Figure 25: Smoking prevalence by Health Board, SSCQ 2014

Estimates of smoking rates across health boards do not deviate greatly from the national average. The only detectable differences are for Greater Glasgow and Clyde ( GGC), higher than the national average at 22.3% (p=0.036), and for Lothian health board, which is below the national average at 18.5% (p=0.042).

Table 80: Smoking prevalence by Health Board area, SSCQ 2014; changes from 2013 and 2012

Health Board	2014		Change from 2013	Change from 2012
Ayrshire & Arran	22.2	± 2.4	-1.9	-1.9
Borders	16.9	± 3.8	-1.9	-3.0
Dumfries and Galloway	23.7	± 4.0	+4.7	+0.1
Fife	19.8	± 2.8	-3.1	-4.0
Forth Valley	23.1	± 2.9	+2.1	+1.2
Grampian	21.4	± 2.1	-1.2	-0.9
Greater Glasgow & Clyde	22.3	± 1.5	-1.9	-3.1
Highland	20.1	± 2.7	+1.1	-3.8
Lanarkshire	21.9	± 2.4	-3.7	-2.9
Lothian	18.5	± 1.9	-1.0	-4.0
Orkney	17.0	± 4.6	-3.0	-0.1
Shetland	19.8	± 5.8	+1.1	+0.2
Tayside	22.0	± 2.6	+0.3	-2.4
Western Isles	26.1	± 6.2	+4.4	+4.8
SCOTLAND	21.2	± 0.7	-1.1	-2.6

In line with the fall in the national rate, GGC and Lothian health boards have detectable reductions in smoking prevalence over three years. In GGC smoking rates have fallen each year, from 25.4% in 2012 to 22.3% in 2014. In Lothian there has been a 4 percentage point drop from 2012, from 22.5% to 18.5% in 2014.

Across other health boards, it is not possible to distinguish changes in point estimate from random effects. However, most show a systematic reduction over time.

9.4 Mental Wellbeing

There are significantly higher levels of mental wellbeing as measured by SWEMWBS in Orkney, Shetland and the Highlands compared with the national average. Lower levels were measured in the Ayshire & Arran health board.

Figure 26: Average SWEMWBS score by Health Board area, 2014

Figure 27: Average SWEMWBS score by Health Board area, 2014

Health Board	2014
Ayrshire & Arran	23.9	± 0.2
Borders	24.6	± 0.5
Dumfries and Galloway	24.3	± 0.4
Fife	24.6	± 0.3
Forth Valley	24.4	± 0.3
Grampian	24.7	± 0.2
Greater Glasgow & Clyde	24.3	± 0.2
Highland	24.9	± 0.3
Lanarkshire	24.6	± 0.3
Lothian	24.7	± 0.2
Orkney	26.4	± 1.0
Shetland	25.2	± 0.7
Tayside	24.2	± 0.3
Western Isles	24.4	± 0.7
SCOTLAND	24.5	± 0.1

9.5 Provision of Unpaid Care

There are relatively small difference between Health Boards in the proportion of adults providing unpaid care.

In Fife (p<0.001) and Grampian (p=0.003), rates are lower than the national average: 12.9% and 15.6% provide care respectively.

In the Western Isles 27.4% provide unpaid care, significantly higher than the national average (p=0.003).

Table 81: Provision of unpaid care by Health Board area, 2014

Health Board	2014
Ayrshire & Arran	21.1	± 2.7
Borders	17.8	± 4.0
Dumfries and Galloway	19.1	± 3.6
Fife	12.9	± 2.3
Forth Valley	20.7	± 2.9
Grampian	15.6	± 1.9
Greater Glasgow & Clyde	17.9	± 1.5
Highland	20.3	± 2.9
Lanarkshire	17.4	± 2.5
Lothian	17.3	± 1.9
Orkney	22.4	± 6.7
Shetland	24.3	± 6.9
Tayside	18.8	± 2.7
Western Isles	27.4	± 6.4
SCOTLAND	17.9	± 0.7

9.6 Perceptions of Local Crime Rate

Since 2012 the proportion of respondents reporting that crime in their local area has fallen or stayed the same has gone up in four Police Scotland Division areas, as shown in Table 82.

In 2014 the highest levels for this indicator (respondents reporting crime had fallen or stayed the same in the past 2 years) were found in Argyll & West Dunbartonshire (80.0%), Tayside (80.2%) and in Renfrewshire & Inverclyde (82.1%).

Renfrewshire & Inverclyde and Argyll & West Dunbartonshire saw the largest increases over the series, up 7.6 and 6.8 points respectively since 2012.

A statistically significant reduction been observed only in Edinburgh; a reduction of 5.7 points since 2012. Edinburgh also had the lowest proportion of adults reporting crime in their local area to be 'a lot less', 'a little less' or 'about the same' in 2014 at 69.8%.

Table 82: Local crime rate by Police Scotland Division; changes from 2013 and 2012

Police Scotland Division	2014		Change from 2013		Change from 2012
Aberdeen City	74.3	± 4.3	-3.4		-4.8
Aberdeenshire & Moray	78.1	± 3.3	-3.0		+0.3
Argyll & West Dunbartonshire	80.0	± 3.5	+3.3		+6.8
Ayrshire	74.8	± 3.2	-2.9		+0.8
Dumfries & Galloway	77.5	± 5.2	-1.7		-1.4
Edinburgh	69.8	± 3.2	-6.9		-5.7
Fife	78.4	± 3.3	-2.0		+1.4
Forth Valley	79.9	± 2.9	-2.0		+2.4
Greater Glasgow	77.9	± 2.1	+2.9		+3.1
Highland & Islands	79.4	± 3.3	-0.2		-1.8
Lanarkshire	78.2	± 2.5	+3.8		+4.8
Lothians & Scottish Borders	75.4	± 3.3	+0.6		+2.6
Renfrewshire & Inverclyde	82.1	± 3.2	+2.4		+7.6
Tayside	80.2	± 3.0	+0.0		+2.1
SCOTLAND	77.4	± 0.8	-0.2		+1.6

9.7 Confidence in Policing

Analysis of Confidence in Police is conducted on latent classes across all six questions. These statistics are in development and are therefore provided in a supplementary paper available from the SSCQ website. ^[50]