Establishment and Piloting of a Population Panel Survey for Wales

Public Health Wales seeks to commission the establishment and piloting of a population panel for Wales, to engage the public on issues of key public health importance (e.g., health inequalities, health behaviours, population aspirations for public health, perceptions on public health policy, and new avenues of research and evaluation). Establishment of the population panel will focus on panel recruitment, methods of panel rotation, and methods of participation and their implementation (e.g., online survey self-completion, computer assisted telephone interviewing [CATI], computer assisted self-interviewing [CASI], mixed approaches to suit participant preferences). We envision each monthly panel survey to include a sample of approximately 800-1,000 residents. Panel membership will ensure national representativeness within each monthly survey, according to geography, age, sex, and deprivation quintile (as determined by the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation), with over-sampling of participants resident in Wales’ most deprived lower super output areas. Panel membership would also represent the rich diversity of the Welsh population, with over-sampling of under-represented population groups, including by ethnicity, disability, and younger age. We expect the pilot phase (to March 2023) to include recruitment and initial surveying of panel members and second-contact surveying to inform understanding of retention, possible attrition, rotation, and ongoing maintenance of the panel.