Research & consultations

British Gambling Prevalence Survey 2007 secondary analysis: understanding non-response

This project was undertaken by NatCen and considered whether participant non-response may have had an effect on the results of the British Gambling Prevalence Survey 2007.  Among other things it considered the effect of non-response to the problem gambling questions on the survey estimates. 

The full report can be found at:

Understanding non-responses to the British gambling prevalence survey 2007 - October 2008

Key findings

Overall, the findings reported in the BGPS 2007 were robust against potential non-response biases.

Infrequent gamblers were less likely to answer the problem gambling screen than frequent gamblers. This meant that the prevalence of problem gambling in some population sub-groups was marginally lower than previously reported. However, this had no impact at the overall population level, meaning that the level of problem gamblers remained at 0.6%, the same as stated in the BGPS 2007 report.

The report made a number of recommendations for reducing non-response biases in future prevalence surveys. These included considering the relevance of questions to respondents in order to encourage them to complete the questionnaire and continued assessment of future BGPS surveys to measure whether the introduction of an additional weight to account for non-response to the problem gambling screens is necessary.

 

Page last reviewed: April 2011