The Scottish Household Survey and its disability questions

The Scottish Household Survey

The Scottish Household Survey (SHS) is a continuous survey based on a sample of the general population in private residences in Scotland. The survey has been conducted annually since 1999. It has around 10,000 respondents each year (apart from 2020, which had around 4,200 responses due to COVID-19 restrictions).

As the survey only samples private residences, people in accommodation such as hospitals and care homes are not included. The groups not covered by the survey are estimated to form 0.5% of Scotland’s population, although disabled people may be over-represented in this group.

More information on the SHS can be found on the Scottish Government website.

Some general questions about the household are asked to the highest income householder or their partner. The survey also includes questions asked of one randomly selected adult (aged 16 or over) in the household. This part of the survey includes questions on the individual’s general travel patterns, as well as a travel diary which asks that adult details about every journey they took the previous day.

Scottish Household Survey Definition of Disability

The survey asks these two questions relevant to disability to the ‘Random Adult’ in each household:

Question RG5A

Do you have a physical or mental health condition or illness lasting or expected to last 12 months or more?

  • Yes
  • No
  • Don’t know
  • Refusal

Question RG5B

Does your condition or illness reduce your ability to carry-out day-to-day activities?

  • Yes, a lot
  • Yes, a little
  • Not at all

If a person answers ‘Yes’ to the first question and ‘Yes, a lot’ or ‘Yes, a little’ to the second, then they are considered disabled, in line with the Equality Act 2010 definition and most large-scale surveys in Scotland and the UK.

The below two questions relevant to disability are asked of the Highest Income Householder about all the members of the household:

Question HF1A

Could you tell me whether any of the people in the household has any physical or mental health condition or illness lasting or expected to last 12 months or more?

Question HF2A

Which of the conditions listed on this card best describes the physical or mental health condition that (name) has?

  • Arthritis
  • A speech impairment
  • Chest or breathing problems (asthma/ bronchitis)
  • Diabetes
  • Difficulty hearing
  • Difficulty seeing (even when wearing spectacles/ contact lenses)
  • Dyslexia
  • Epilepsy
  • Heart, bl
  • ood pressure or circulation problems
  • Learning or behavioural problems (e.g. autism, Down’s Syndrome)
  • Mental health problems
  • Problems or disabilities related to arms or hands
  • Problems or disabilities related to legs or feet
  • Problems or disabilities related to back or neck
  • Severe disfigurement, skin condition or allergies
  • Severe stomach, liver, kidney or digestive problem
  • Some other progressive disability or illness
  • Difficulty understanding spoken and/or written word [only available since 2019]
  • Some other health problem or disability
  • Refused

The Highest Income Householder and Random Adult are sometimes different people, and there can be discrepancies as to whether they consider the Random Adult to have a condition. Therefore, a small number of disabled Random Adults do not have any particular condition recorded.

There is no question asking how much children’s day to day activities are affected by their condition. When looking at children, we can only determine whether they have a health condition and what it is. We do not know whether their day-to-day activities are limited or not.

The full Scottish Household Survey questionnaire can be found on the Scottish Government website.

Survey years used and comparisons over time

In the first edition of the report figures were averaged over the five years from 2015 to 2019. In the this edition, figures have been averaged over the five years from 2017 to 2021.

Using five years of data in this way provides a larger sample with more reliable percentages than a single year’s data would, and allows for some analysis by type of disability.

However, comparisons are not appropriate between these two five year periods. In addition to the significant overlap between the two periods, changes were made to the survey methodology in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These changes, most notably the move to telephone interviewing rather than face to face, introduced a discontinuity in the time series.

It is nonetheless considered to be acceptable practice to combine data from 2020 and 2021 with data from other years in order to produce a large enough sample for sub-group analysis (as in this publication).

More information on the changes to the survey can be found in the Scottish Household Survey Methodology Reports.

Figures for individual years are available by disability (but not any further sub-divisions) in Transport and Travel in Scotland.