What will happen to any information I give?
The Scottish Government and NHS Health Scotland will treat information you give in strict confidence. The results of the study will never include any names or addresses. The information collected is used for statistical and research purposes only and will be dealt with according to the principles of the 1998 Data Protection Act.
Who is carrying out the study?
The Scottish Government and NHS Health Scotland asked the Scottish Centre for Social Research (ScotCen), in collaboration with the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London (UCL) and the MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit at the University of Glasgow, to carry out the survey.
The Scottish Centre for Social Research is a registered charity (Registered Charity No. 1091768). ScotCen, UCL and the MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit at the University of Glasgow are independent of all government departments and political parties.
How did you choose my address?
We chose your address from the Postcode Address File using random selection procedures. This file is held by the Post Office and is available to the public.
How long will it take?
The interview length will vary depending upon a number of factors such as how many people live in your household and how old they are. When the interviewer calls he or she can give you an idea of how long your interview might take, and can then book an appointment at a time that suits you best.
What is the survey about?
The questions you will be asked are about your health and lifestyle.
Why is this research important and why should I take part?
The survey provides information about the health of people all over Scotland which cannot be obtained from other sources. This includes information about lifestyles as well as about health. This is the only way that the Scottish Government can get feedback from the average family, rather than statistics from people in hospital or from those who visit their GP. It is also the only way they can link information on lifestyles and health. The Scottish Health Survey is essential for the Scottish Government's forward planning, for identifying gaps in health services provision and for identifying which groups are at particular risk of future ill-health.
We need to talk to different types of people to get an accurate picture of the health of the nation. The Scottish Health Survey is designed to represent people of different ages, sexes, geographic areas and backgrounds across the nation.
Prior to the introduction of the Scottish Health Survey in 1995 there was no comprehensive picture of the health of the population, its biological characteristics or health-related behaviour available at national level, nor on how these characteristics may be changing over time. The Scottish Health Survey was therefore designed to overcome this lack of knowledge, with a number of specific aims:
- to estimate the prevalence of particular health conditions in Scotland
- to estimate the prevalence of certain risk factors associated with these health conditions and to document the pattern of related health behaviours
- to look at differences between regions and between subgroups of the population in the extent of their having these particular health conditions or risk factors, and to make comparisons with other national statistics for Scotland and England
- to monitor trends in the population's health over time
- to make a major contribution to monitoring progress towards health targets
You may also wish to look at our uses of survey data page.
Why have I been chosen to take part?
The Scottish Health Survey is designed to provide information on the health of people in Scotland. To visit every household in Scotland would take too long and cost too much money. Instead we select a sample of addresses and ask the people at those addresses to take part in the Survey.
Addresses are chosen at random from a list obtained from the post office. Interviewers do not know who lives at the address until they visit it. Different addresses are chosen each year.
Once an address has been selected for the survey, we cannot replace it with another address. This means that we rely on the goodwill of those who have been chosen for the success of our study.
What does participation involve?
If your household has been selected to take part in the Scottish Health Survey, we will first send you a letter to inform you and to ask for your participation. You will then receive a visit from an interviewer.
Please note that all interviewers carry an identity card with their photograph - they must show you this when they visit your address. Local police have been alerted to the fact that interviewers are working in their area. Never let an interviewer into your household until you have seen their identity card.
The questions you will be asked are all about your health and lifestyle, so they are interesting and easy to answer.
Is the study confidential?
Yes.
Any information given to us will be treated in the strictest confidence. Results are only ever presented as statistics, not in a form which can reveal your identity.
Did you know? (Facts from previous surveys)
- A third of men and women think that their general health is 'very good'.
- Around 1 in 5 men and women and just over 1 in 10 children eat five or more portions of fruit and vegetables a day.
- Younger adults are more likely to smoke, but older people who smoke tend to smoke more cigarettes per day.
- About 1 in 4 men drink more than 21 units of alcohol a week and about 1 in 6 women drink more than 14 units.
- Men spend an average of 7 hours per week being physically active and women spend an average of 5 hours.
- Men are more likely than women to take part in sport while women are more likely than men to do heavy housework.
- Three quarters of boys and nearly two-thirds of girls aged 2-15 spend at least an hour a day doing physical activities.
- About 2 in 5 men and women have a long-standing illness, this rises to 2 in 3 of those aged 75 and over.
Where can I find out more about the Scottish Health Survey?
The findings from each survey are published in a special report. The report from the 2003
Survey, was published in November 2005. You can download a copy using the link below:
Bromley, C., Sproston, K &. Shelton, N. (eds.): The Scottish Health Survey 2003, The Scottish
Executive, 2005.
Or your local library could order a copy of the report.
The results of the 2008 survey will be published in 29 September 2009 and will be available from this website at this time. You may also wish to look at our publications page.
Contact details and further information
If you would like to talk to someone about the study, please call us on freephone 0800 652 4569 and ask for Karen Hawkes.