Covid-19: Scottish Contact Survey
Average number of contacts between age groups during each wave of the Scottish Contact Survey.
Data
Covid-19: Scottish Contact Survey
Description
The Scottish Contact Survey (SCS) is a behavioural survey, asking questions to panels of people who have been recruited to be broadly representative of the Scottish population. It was launched in August 2020 and is based on the CoMix study, developed by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM).
Adults record their direct, face-to-face contacts made on the previous day, specifying certain characteristics for each contact including the age and sex of the contact, whether a meeting involved physical contact with another person, and where contact occurred (e.g. home, at work, while undertaking other activities, etc.). The average number of contacts each person has is calculated for a range of settings (home, work, school, and other). Exact ages of contacts is not recorded, so a sample weighted by the population between the minimum and maximum age reported for the contact is used. Further information and the code used to analyse the survey data are available on GitHub. SCS results have been routinely published in the Modelling the Epidemic series of reports.
This data release contains information on the average number of contacts between age groups. Before 31 March 2022, the survey was run weekly using two panels of participants in alternative weeks and is reported as a rolling sample. The dates reported correspond to the midpoint of the survey period. From 31 March 2022, the two survey panels were merged and the survey frequency was reduced to fortnightly. The dates reported correspond to the first day of the survey period.
The Scottish Contact Survey closed in December 2022 and, therefore, this dataset will no longer be updated.
Metadata
| Theme | Health and Social Care |
|---|---|
| Organisation | Scottish Government |
| License | UK Open Government Licence (OGL) |
| Published | |
| Last updated | |
| Update frequency | annual |
| Reference period | 2020 to 2022 |
| Geographic coverage | Country |
| Contact | sgcentralanalysisdivision@gov.scot |
Data quality
Completeness
Analysis of the Scottish Contact Survey data has been routinely published in the Modelling the Epidemic series of reports.
Uniqueness
Not assessed
Consistency
The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine developed a technique called CoMix which is based on a UK survey determining how many contacts people have each week. Scottish participants are included in their findings however only represent approximately 10% of respondents, leading to a high level of uncertainty in the Scottish results. Scottish Government run a Scottish Contact Survey (SCS) based on the CoMix study to boost these numbers.
It's difficult to draw conclusions between the surveys due to the difference in population sizes and differences in truncation parameters.
Timeliness
The survey closed in December 2022 and, therefore, this dataset will no longer be updated.
Validity
This data is relevant to users interested in contact patterns during the Covid-19 epidemic in Scotland.
Accuracy
The survey participant group has been selected to be as representative of the Scottish population as possible. The data collected is bootstrapped which is a method of estimating parameters for a population from a collection of smaller random samples of that population.
Quality management
Data quality issues were identified with surveys starting on 13 August 2020 and 24 September 2020. As such, these surveys are excluded from this data release.
Additional details
Revisions
Any revisions and correction to this publication and previous editions of it are carried out in line with the Scottish Government's corrections and revisions policy.
Confidentiality policy
This dataset does not contain any sensitive or personal information.