Public knowledge and behaviour: Survey and focus groups

Survey

A survey of 1878 members of the general public in England (aged 18 and over), living in private residential addresses, was carried out by National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) in August and September 2017. The sample was drawn from members of NatCen’s random probability panel, which involves largely web-based surveys, but also includes telephone interviews with panel members who do not have internet access in order to provide coverage of the whole population. Of the 3153 panel members in England invited to participate in the survey, the achieved sample included 1633 web interviews and 245 telephone interviews, giving an overall survey response rate of 60%.

NatCen used a sequential mixed mode design, with panel members first invited (by various methods including email, text and post) to complete the survey questionnaire online. Panel members who had not completed the online questionnaire after two weeks were then contacted by telephone (if phone numbers were available). This ensures that panel members who do not have access to the internet, or who may have literacy or language problems with a written questionnaire, are still able to participate. A £5 gift card was sent as a ‘thank you’ to those who participated.

Fieldwork lasted for one month, from 24 August to 24 September.

Further details of the NatCen probability-based panel can be found in (Jessop C, 2018).

Questionnaire

Draft survey questions were initially specified by the PIRU research team, and these were subsequently modified and refined in discussion with NatCen. The questions covered: attitudes to hot weather; effectiveness of various actions for protecting people from heat; adaptations to home that lend protection from heat; awareness of any hot weather advice or publicity during the summer heatwave in June 2017;

actions taken to reduce harm from heat (for themselves or for other vulnerable people they know); and whether they suffered any ill effects from hot weather during that period. The majority of the questions came from previous surveys that looked at the public’s views on heat protection messages and measures, and on their changes in behaviour (Public Health England, 2016; Lefevre et. Al., 2015). The questionnaire is included in Appendix 12.

The questions on hot weather and the summer heatwave were part of a survey which included modules of questions on other topics for other NatCen clients.

Non-response and weighting

Since not everyone invited to participate in a survey does so, non-response weighting is used to try to minimise any bias introduced by differential response among

population sub-groups (e.g. men versus women, younger versus older age groups, etc.). For surveys using the NatCen panel, non-response can occur at three stages:

firstly, for the survey which is used to recruit the panel (i.e. the British Social Attitudes Survey (BSA), which involves a face-to-face interview with a probability sample selected throughout Great Britain); secondly, refusal to join the panel at the end of the BSA interview; and thirdly, non-response for particular panel surveys.

NatCen calculates a weight to account for non-response at each of the three stages, with the final weight being the product of these three weights. Logistic regression models are used to derive the probabilities of response of each panel member, and the weight is computed to be the inverse of the probabilities of response. The weight adjusts for non-response using a number of variables such as region, household type, education level, internet access and social class. Further details about the weighting and survey methods for this specific survey are available in a Technical Report written by NatCen, which can be obtained from the PIRU research team.

Table 2.1 shows how the estimated profile of the population (column a) compares with the weighted survey sample (column b) (at the time of panel recruitment in 2015/16) for several key socio-demographic variables. It also shows the profile of the achieved panel sample (column c) at the time of data collection for the current survey (summer 2017). While columns (b) and (c) are similar, the latter is updated for people who may have moved from one region to another, changed their type of job or household, etc.

Table 2.1 Socio-demographics: population estimates compared with weighted survey estimates at time of panel recruitment, and profile of weighted sample at time of interview (summer 2017)

(a)

Yorkshire & The Humber 10 10 10

East Midlands 9 9 8

West Midlands 10 10 10

East of England 11 11 11

London 16 15 15

South East 16 16 16

South West 10 11 11

Social grade

Managerial & professional 38 39 41

Intermediate 12 14 14

Small employers & own account workers 9 7 8

Lower supervisory & technical 8 8 8

Semi-routine & routine 28 27 29

Household type

Single person household 17 16 17

Lone parent 4 4 4

2 adults (no children) 36 36 35

2 adults (with children) 21 21 23

3+ adults (no children) 15 15 16

3+ adults (with children) 7 7 6

Analysis

The survey data were ‘cleaned’ by NatCen and provided to the research team as an SPSS dataset. Data analysis was carried out by PIRU researchers using SPSS v23.

The analysis presents survey results by socio-demographic variables including:

gender, age group, ethnic group, Government Office Region (GOR), highest educational qualification, household type, urban or rural residence, longstanding disability and self-reported general health.

Results are also provided for a number of ‘vulnerable’ groups, including (unweighted bases are shown in brackets):

• Individuals aged 75 years and over (75+) (143)

• Individuals aged 75+ who live alone (69)

• Individuals aged 18-74 with a limiting longstanding illness (18-74 with LLSI) (260)

• Individuals aged 18-74 with self-reports of bad/very bad health (18-74 with bad health) (135)

While young children are also recognised as another at-risk group, since the survey did not collect data on the age of children living in participants’ households, it was not possible to identify participants who were looking after young children.

Focus groups

Four focus groups about how people coped in hot weather were carried out in three different geographical regions and towns in England: two in central London; one in the South East; and one in the Midlands. Participants were purposively selected to include those identified potentially as most at risk during heatwaves: largely older people, particularly those over age 75 and living on their own, including those with health conditions likely to be made worse by heat (Public Health England, 2015a: p14).

Participants were recruited through national and local voluntary organisations supporting people from this group, one being a national charity organising monthly tea parties

Table 2.1 Continued (a)

Full time education 5 4 4

Paid work 57 58 54

Rented (HA/Trust/New Town) 7 8 6

Rented (Other) 18 18 17

Other 1 1 3