The Scottish Household Survey and its disability questions
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.
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.
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?
- (1) Arthritis
- (2) A speech impairment
- (3) Chest or breathing problems (asthma/ bronchitis)
- (4) Diabetes
- (5) Difficulty hearing
- (6) Difficulty seeing (even when wearing spectacles/ contact lenses)
- (7) Dyslexia
- (8) Epilepsy
- (9) Heart, blood pressure or circulation problems
- (10) Learning or behavioural problems (e.g. autism, Down's Syndrome)
- (11) Mental health problems
- (12) Problems or disabilities related to arms or hands
- (13) Problems or disabilities related to legs or feet
- (14) Problems or disabilities related to back or neck
- (15) Severe disfigurement, skin condition or allergies
- (16) Severe stomach, liver, kidney or digestive problem
- (17) Some other progressive disability or illness
- (18) Difficulty understanding spoken and/or written word [only available since 2019]
- (19) Some other health problem or disability
- (20) 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, some 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.
Follow this link for the full Scottish Household Survey questionnaire.
In this report, figures have usually been averaged over the 5 years from 2015-2019. There tends to be relatively little change to travel patterns over this time period, and using five years provides a larger sample with more reliable percentages than a single year's data would.