Understanding Society User Support

Dear Pauline,

I have consulted with our survey manager, who has provided the following response:

On Understanding Society, the proxy informant must be an adult aged 16 or over and either a close relative, another adult in the household who knows the respondent well, or be nominated by the proxy subject. I am not aware of any analysis on the data quality within the proxy interview, looking at the status of the proxy informant to the subject. At Wave 5 we had 3,862 proxy interviews (8.6% of the total adult interviews). In over half of these cases (52%) the informant was the partner of the subject. In another fifth of cases, the informant was a child of the subject and in another fifth, the parent of the subject. In fewer than 2% of cases was the informant a non-relative to the subject.

We do allow a non-residential relative to do the proxy on behalf of someone who is not capable, the most likely situation is the one you give in which the elderly sample member allows his or her adult child to respond on their behalf.

I hope this helps,
Best wishes,
Victoria

On behalf of the Understanding Society Data User Support Team