Downloading Datasets
This section provides links (see opposite) to enable users to download each of the Scottish Health Survey national datasets (and corresponding documentation). These are made available for download from the ESDS (Economic and Social Data Service) website.
Future datasets will be available annually.
Note that each Scottish Health Survey dataset is also accompanied with relevant survey documentation including questionnaires (CAPI and self-completion) and showcards; interviewer and nurse instructions (such as measurement protocols); coding lists (eg illnesses) and variable lists (including derived variables). These can be downloaded from the ESDS website alongside the data and are also available on this website on the survey documentation page. Data users should ensure they read the relevant documentation prior to analysing any survey data.
Analysts should note that Health Board analysis of the Scottish Health Survey (2008-2011) will not be produced until 4 years of data are collected (September 2012), but datasets will be released each year and Health Boards with larger samples will be able to analyse their own data before this time. Please contact the Scottish Health Survey Team for further details.
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Combined Datasets
In addition to single year datasets, datasets combining two or more years of data are available.
The purpose of combined datasets is to provide a larger sample for more detailed analysis (including some geographical breakdowns) where the sample size wouldn't be large enough for a single year.
Note that results produced from any of the combined datasets will differ from the results produced by adding together the datasets for the individual years. This is because a combined weight variable is applied to the combined dataset, which differs slightly from the weights applied to the single year datasets. The combined dataset should not be used to produce results for the individual years.
The link for the combined 2008/2009 dataset on the right of this page will take you to the ESDS page for the 2009 survey as the combined dataset is classed as a supplement to the 2008 and 2009 datasets.
The combined dataset for 2008/2010 is now available - the link will take you to the 2010 page on the ESDS website where you can access both the 2010 and 2008/2010 datasets. The purpose of the 2008/2010 combined dataset is to allow more detailed analysis on the questions which are in the rotating biennial module and which were asked in 2008 and 2010 only. It should only be used for analysis of variables in this module.
A combined dataset for 2008/2009/2010 will be made available on the ESDS website soon.
A list of the weight variables to apply to each Health Survey dataset including the combined datasets is available from our Weighting the Data section.
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Special Datasets
If you require a dataset containing variables which aren't available from the publicly available datasets, please download the attached proforma and guidelines and follow the instructions within.