High Blood Pressure: key data sources

Scottish Health Survey

The 1995, 1998, 2003 and annual 2008-2022 Scottish Health Surveys obtained health-related data from a sample of the population of Scotland. Between 2012 and 2019 measurement of blood pressure has been carried out by specially trained interviewers. In 2020 and 2021 these measurements were not possible due to the in-person interviews being replaced by telephone interviews. These measurements resumed in 2022. Prior to 2012, blood pressure was collected in a follow-up interview conducted by survey nurses. In addition, participants were asked whether their doctor had ever told them they had high blood pressure. 

Quality and Outcomes Framework

The General Medical Services contract for general practices, introduced in 2004, included a voluntary Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF). Data from the QOF were published by ISD (now Public Health Scotland) up to 2015/16 when the framework was discontinued. The QOF measured achievement against a range of evidence-based indicators and includes quality indicators for high blood pressure. The advantage of this data source is its national level of coverage; one important disadvantage is that only aggregated data are available, so that it is not possible to adjust for age or other differences when making comparisons between populations. Further information on QOF can be found on the Public Health Scotland website.

Scottish Primary Care Information Resource

The Scottish Primary Care Information Resource (SPIRE) was a national data service that superseded the Practice Team Initiative (PTI) and provided general practice information to both the general public and healthcare professionals. SPIRE was a bespoke service rather than a central dataset, with aggregate data only extracted for specific purposes selected by the SPIRE prioritisation group. SPIRE was decommissioned in 2023. Public Health Scotland (PHS) is working in partnership with National Services Scotland and the Scottish Government to deliver a new primary care data extraction tool.

Further details of these data sources are given on our overview of key data sources pages.