Summary of survey design

The Health Survey for England Feasibility Survey (HSE FS) sample was designed to be representative of the population living in private households in England and comprised 19,500 addresses selected at random.

Data was collected in two stages. At stage one, a letter was sent to sampled addresses inviting a maximum of two adults aged 16 years and over to take part in an online survey using a website link to the questionnaire and unique access codes contained in the invitation letter. To increase participation, up to two reminders were sent to non-responding addresses, the second of which included two paper questionnaires to maximise response and sample representativeness.  

In the stage one questionnaire, parents of children aged 0 to 15 were asked whether they consented to be re-contacted for the second stage of the study – a survey of children. Where this consent was given, parents of children aged 0 to 12 were invited to complete a short paper questionnaire about their child, enclosing an additional paper questionnaire for children aged 8 to 12 to complete. Children aged 13 to 15 were sent an invitation letter which included a website link to the questionnaire and unique access code to complete the survey online. Alternatively, these older children could complete a paper questionnaire.

Fieldwork was carried out between December 2020 and February 2021 for the stage one adult survey, and between May and June 2021 for the stage two child survey.

The first part of this report describes both the sample design and sample selection for stage one and stage two. Following this, the questionnaire content is discussed, including a summary of differences between face-to-face data collection and self-completion modes. This section reviews the fieldwork procedures, including invitation and reminder mailings posted to sampled addresses. Data validation and management is then discussed, with a brief assessment of the quality and the accuracy of survey estimates. Finally, the weighting strategy is described.

The second section of the report presents the profiles of the achieved sample, the household and individual level response rates. Consent rates for the different survey elements are also presented (nurse agreement, consent to data linkage and consent to follow-up research) and these are compared with consent and response rates achieved on the HSE 2019 face-to-face survey (the latest survey for which full-year results are available).

A discussion of the methodology of adapting face-to-face interview content to self-completion modes for key themes such as adult health, health-related behaviours (including smoking, drinking alcohol, fruit and vegetable consumption and physical activity) is presented. Comparisons are made with previous Health Survey for England (HSE) estimates where appropriate. 

This report then briefly assesses the data in terms of data quality, and comparability of survey estimates between self-completion and face-to-face modes.

The report concludes with a summary of recommendations from the Feasibility Study.