The Scottish Government

Mental wellbeing.

Associated Targets

Increase the average score of adults on the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being scale by 2011.

Brief Description

Mental wellbeing derived from average score on the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale ( WEMWBS) of adults aged 16+ years.

Strategic Objective(s) to Which Indicator Relates

This indicator informs progress in relation to the Healthier Strategic Objective.

More Detailed Definitions

Definitions of Keywords

The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS) has been designed to measure positive mental wellbeing.

For each of 14 separate statements describing feelings relating to mental wellbeing, respondents are asked to indicate how often they have felt this way over the last two weeks, using a 5 point scale (ranging from none of the time to all of the time).

The overall score is calculated by totalling the scores for each item (minimum possible score is 14 and the maximum is 70); the higher a person's score is, the better their level of mental wellbeing.

Adults are defined as those aged 16 years and over.

Evidence Source

Data source: Scottish Health Survey

Unit of measurement: Average WEMWBS score.

Mental Health is recognised as a priority issue with serious challenges, which is a key determinant not only of health and wellbeing, but also of education, employment, family/social contact, community, safety etc.

Baseline and Past Trends

Baseline value: 51.05 - from 2006 Well? What Do You Think? Survey

This was the first survey to give representative WEMWBS results and so there are no past trends for this indicator.

Data for 2008 onwards available on Scotland Performs (from September 2009).

Methodology for Data Source

Sample survey data.

See 'Definitions of Keywords' above for details of scoring on the WEMWBS scale.

Mean is used as a measure of average score.

2006 - Well? What Do You Think? Survey - national sample survey based on 1,200 adults.

The annual denominator population for the Scottish Health Survey (from 2008 onwards) will be approximately 6,400 adults aged 16+ years.

Data Ownership and Quality Assurance

Past data were not National Statistics, but data for 2008 onwards will be put forward for assessment as National Statistics.

Publication of Data

Annual reports to be published by the Scottish Government from 2008 (first results available September 2009).

Methodology for Recent Change Arrow on Scotland

Thresholds for progress in relation to the rate of change in the mean score will be determined once the 2008 survey results are available.