Australian Bureau of Statistics
Celebrating the International Year of Statistics 2013

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KIDNEY DISEASE

Definition

This topic refers to those ever told by a doctor or nurse they have kidney disease.

Population

Information was obtained for all persons in the NHS and persons aged 2 years and over in the NNPAS.

Methodology

Respondents were asked whether they had ever been told by a doctor or a nurse that they had kidney disease and whether they currently had the condition. Respondents with kidney disease were assumed to be long-term.

Respondents were asked whether they had ever had dialysis or used a kidney machine.

Respondent who reported having current kidney disease were sequenced to the "Actions" module where they were asked questions about the number of times they had seen a GP, specialist, etc.

Respondents were asked in a later module about all medications and health supplements that they were taking, but not in relation to any specific condition.

Data items

The data items and related output categories for this topic will be available in Excel spreadsheet format from the Downloads page of this product.

Interpretation

Points to be considered in interpreting data for this topic include the following.

• respondents may not have distinguished between kidney disease, kidney stones or kidney infection. Kidney stones and kidney infection may be short-term conditions. Distinction cannot be made from the data between the various kidney ailments and as such there may be respondents incorrectly classified as long-term. However given the prevalence of kidney disease is expected to be an underestimate, it is considered that the impact is minimal.
• because this is a household-based survey, those people with kidney disease resident in hospitals, nursing or convalescent homes, or similar accommodation are outside the scope of this survey. As a result, the survey will under-represent those with more severe complications of the condition;