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

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.