The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has expressed its confidence in the outputs of the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB) following the publication of new research into gambling participation from surveys and Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) rates.
A study conducted by Professor Patrick Sturgis investigated why self-completion surveys like the GSGB report higher gambling and PGSI risk level estimates than face-to-face surveys such as the Health Survey for England (HSE) or Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (APMS).
The research follows Sturgis’ independent assessment of the GSGB, implementing his recommendations on understanding the impact of methodological change on estimates of gambling behaviours in Great Britain.
Topics explored include whether mentioning gambling in the survey invitation impacts who responds, whether being interviewed by a person stops self-reporting of activity and consequences, as well as whether being given a long and updated list of gambling has any impact.
Improving guidance
Regarding whether being presented with a longer and updated gambling activities list impacts prevalence estimates, the report found that updating the list had “minimal impact” on the reported gambling participation or the rate of those who scored a PGSI of one or more.
The study also stated that the minimal impact suggests that it doesn’t “explain the substantial gaps between older and more recent survey estimates”.
The GSGB (2023) estimates the PGSI 8+ score to be 2.5% amongst adults aged 18+ in Great Britain, while the HSE 2021 estimates the rate to be 0.3% amongst adults aged 16+ in England, and APMS 2023/24 estimates the rate to be 0.4% adults aged 16+ in England.
Ben Haden, Director of Research and Policy at UKGC, noted: “We welcome the results of this report which sheds important new light on the impact of different survey methodologies in relation to gambling.
“This research builds our confidence in the outputs of GSGB, helps to understand the differences between surveys published on gambling and will improve our guidance for users.”
Regarding whether mentioning gambling impacts who responds to a survey, the report said that it didn’t have an impact on the overall response rate, but there was a 4% increase in reported gambling participation, which could be due to participants having a personal gambling interest.
The study also mentioned that the rate of those with a score of one or above on the PGSI scale was 1.8% higher in the gambling-invitation group, but a statistically significant difference was not reached.
Under-reporting undesirable behaviours with interviewer
As for whether an interviewer asking questions affected the responses of participants to PGSI questions, the report noted that it had a “substantial effect”, as the rate of PGSI scores of one or above a 4.4% higher in online self-completions compared to telephone interviews.
This is close to a 50% increase in those scoring one or above, suggesting that “respondents under-report undesirable behaviours in the presence of an interviewer”.
The report also recommended that the UKGC reviews its online guidance on interpreting GSGB estimates of gambling and gambling harm “to better reflect the likely causes of differences between them and those of earlier health surveys”, to which the Commission has stated that it will carry this out as part of its research development.
In addition, the study recommended that the UKGC conduct a detailed benchmarking against the recently published 2023/24 APMS.
“We recognise that it is impossible to definitively measure participation and the consequences of gambling through one research vehicle alone,” stated Haden.
“We will continue to work on refining GSGB, accessing different datasets and working with other producers of gambling-related surveys to produce a rounded evidence base to inform our work.”
Sturgis added: “The experimental nature of this research means we can draw strong causal conclusions about the factors that lead to wide variability in gambling estimates across different surveys.
“While no single study will enable us to determine the ’true’ values for key gambling estimates, these findings make an important contribution to our understanding of how different survey design features influence the results obtained.”
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