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Scottish Health Survey

Health

The Scottish Health Survey (SHeS) provides a detailed picture of the health of the Scottish population in private households and is designed to make a major contribution to the monitoring of health in Scotland. It 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.

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.

A video has been made to illustrate the wide range of uses of the health survey. It can be viewed on Vimeo or Youtube. 

Previous Scottish Health Surveys were undertaken in 1995, 1998, and 2003 .

The continuous Scottish Health Survey began in January 2008 and is running from 2008 - 2015. An annual report is published for each year of the survey (latest published is 2010). A contract was awarded last year to continue the survey for for a further four years from 2012-2015. Please see the Newsflash page for further details.

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2008 questionnaires

The 2010 dataset is now available to download from the data archive. Get it here.

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Report of the questionnaire review for 2012-2015 is published. Download it here.

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A weighting error in the 2009 and 2008/2009 datasets has led to the revision of almost all of the tables from the 2009 annual report and web tables. The impact of the revisions is very small in most cases. Refer to the revisions section on the Reports and Publications page for more details.

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Have you been selected for interview and want to know what this involves?

Click here for general information about the survey

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Are you a data user or professional with a technical query ?

Please refer to the sections:

Scottish Health Survey Questionnaires

Scottish Health Survey Questionnaire

Most of the questions are asked by an interviewer using Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) i.e. via a laptop. There is not a questionnaire, as such. However, in order for data users and other professionals to get an idea of what questions are asked in the Scottish Health Survey, we've put together a list of the questions.

2009 Questionnaire (topics listed below)

2008 Questionnaire (topics listed below)

Each Scottish Health Survey questionnaire consists of core questions which are asked every year (topics below) and also questions in a rotating (biannual) module (topics below). Please check both the core content and the module content for 2008 and 2009 when you are looking for a particular topic.

CORE CONTENT

  • Household
  • General Health
  • CardioVascular Disease ( CVD) and use of services
  • Physical Activity
  • Eating habits (children)
  • Smoking
  • Drinking
  • Dental health
  • Socio-economic core (inc economic activity, education, ethnicity and religion)
  • Parental social class
  • Parental health
  • Self-completion (including mental health, contraception and drinking)
  • Height & weight

Scottish Government rotating (biannual) module

In 2008, the module content was as follows:

  • Respiratory and CVD symptoms (in addition to questions on related doctor diagnosed conditions asked of all respondents in the core part of the survey)
  • Asthma (not specifically covered elsewhere in the survey)
  • TV viewing & outdoor physical activity - adults & children (in addition to detailed questions on physical activity and sedentary behaviour asked of all respondents in the core part of the survey)
  • Physical activity at work - adults (in addition to detailed questions on physical activity and sedentary behaviour asked of all respondents in the core part of the survey)
  • Eating habits - adults (in addition to questions on fruit and vegetable consumption asked of all adults and children and eating habits questions asked of children in the core part of the survey)

These questions will be asked again in 2010.

The interview is accompanied by self-completion booklets which are completed by the respondent.

Self-completion questionnaires (2008)


Scottish Health Survey - Self-completion booklet for 13-15 year olds

Scottish Health Survey - Self-completion booklet for adults

Scottish Health Survey - Self-completion booklet for parents of 4-12 year olds

Scottish Health Survey - Self-completion booklet for young adults

Scottish Health Survey - Showcards

2008 Scottish Health Survey content (topics)

SCOTTISH HEALTH SURVEY MODULE 2009

  • The 2009 SCOTTISH HEALTH SURVEY MODULE 2009 is included in the 2009 questionnaire available above.

  • The 2009 module content is:

    • Accidents (not covered elsewhere in the survey)
    • Dental Services (in addition to questions on dental health asked of all respondents in the core part of the survey)
    • Social Capital
    • Discrimination and Harassment
    • Stress at Work

    (The last three topics are covered in addition to other mental health / wellbeing related questions asked of all respondents in the core part of the survey).

    These questions will be asked again in 2011.

Knowledge, Attitudes and Motivations to health (KAM) module (previously HEPS)

This SHeS Module contains questions concerning health-related knowledge, attitudes and behavioural motivations. It is a replacement for the Health Education Population Survey (HEPS) which was previously run by NHS Health Scotland.

What's changed?

What's changed since 2003?

Below is a summary of what has changed from the 2003 questionnaire. It is not a comprehensive list of all the questions which will be in the 2008 survey - only those which have been altered since 2003.

1) New sections

  • COPD
  • Dental health services
  • Discrimination & harassment
  • Social capital
  • Stress at work
  • Mental Health

2) Existing sections with major changes

  • Adult physical activity
  • Smoking
  • Eating habits

3) For existing sections with small changes within them (key changes - not whole section)

  • Household questionnaire
  • General health
  • CVD service use
  • Asthma
  • Drinking
  • Child physical activity

Page updated: Thursday, March 26, 2009