4816.0.55.001 - Occasional Paper: Long-term Health Conditions - A Guide To Time Series Comparability From The National Health Survey, Australia, 2001  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 04/06/2003   
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Assessment:

1989-90 to 1995 . .
1995 to 2001 AL
NHS1989-9019952001
Question description
. .Cancer was covered in Q448, which was a general question to pick up long-term conditions not captured in previous sections. It asked "DO YOU HAVE ANY (OTHER) CONDITIONS THAT HAVE LASTED OR ARE LIKELY TO LAST FOR SIX MONTHS OR MORE, FOR EXAMPLE:"
The prompt card shown (H) includes "Cancer" and "Tumour cyst or growth" among 23 conditions.

Where respondents indicated they had "Cancer" or "Tumour cyst or growth" interviewers would have asked for the site of the cancer in order to code to "skin", "breast" or "other".
Q400 asks respondents: "..HAVE YOU EVER BEEN TOLD BY A DOCTOR OR NURSE YOU HAVE CANCER?"
Q401 asks: " WHAT TYPE OF CANCER WERE YOU TOLD YOU HAD?" Among a list of 11 cancers, included skin cancer (including melanoma, basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma).

Q 404 asked respondents reporting skin cancer: "WHAT TYPE OF SKIN CANCER WAS THIS?" Response categories included "melanoma", "basal cell carcinoma", "squamous cell carcinoma", "other form of skin cancer" and "don't know".
Subsequent questions Q407-408 establish whether the skin cancer is still current. Q411 determines the type of skin cancer that is still current.
ICD-9 codes172-173
NHS codes . .065041,042,043,627,920
Notes. .May include some self-diagnosed skin cancer.
Estimate '000. .97.794.3
Standardised rate per 1,000 population(a). .5.6 5.0
95 % confidence intervals on standardised rates. .4.4 - 6.84.0 - 6.0
CommentsMore detailed and direct question/prompting in 2001 than 1995 provides more information (type of cancer and of persons who were previously diagnosed but no longer have cancer). However, the more detailed question module is not necessarily expected to elicit a higher level of response.
(a) Age standardised to 2001 NHS benchmark population.


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