The questionnaire was sent by post to all 907 care homes in
East and West Sussex in April 2009. One questionnaire was sent to each care home, with a covering letter addressed to
care home managers explaining that findings would be used
to identify areas for improvement. Participants were reassured
that all findings would be treated anonymously and in
confidence to encourage respondents to answer honestly.
Completed questionnaires were sent to the Brighton and
Sussex Medical School and were anonymized prior to analysis.
Reminder letters were not possible as the H1N1 flu pandemic
began and became a priority at this point in the study