Australian Bureau of Statistics

The Australian Health Survey will be the most comprehensive health survey of Australians and will assist government, non-government and health researchers in understanding the health of Australians. The survey will be important to informing ways to combat the major health concerns in Australia such as diabetes, cancer, heart disease, stroke, kidney disease and mental health. Use the links below to find out more

Recently, Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Baggoley, encouraged survey participants to complete the voluntary biomedical component saying that respondents will be:

Information for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples

Older News

Privacy Impact Assessment
Information Sheet for GPs
Stakeholder consultation update - January 2011
List of biomarkers
Field Testing - Pilot test May 2010 outcomes
Stakeholder consultation update - October 2010
Work underway on Indigenous Wave of the AHS

The ABS has prepared a Privacy Impact Assessment (attached below) on the advice of the Commonwealth Privacy Commissioner to address privacy issues related to the AHS .

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The Australian Health Survey (AHS), commencing across the country in March 2011, will be the most comprehensive study of the health of Australians ever undertaken, involving around 50,000 people. This survey addresses key health information gaps in nutrition and physical activity and will deliver objective biomedical data. There is significant interest in the results of this survey in the health policy, services and research sectors.

The AHS will ask about the person, their health status, health service use and health risk factors including diet and physical activity. For the first time, the ABS will collect objective health measures of obesity, blood pressure, measures of nutritional status and chronic disease markers from biomedical samples.

During the household interview, respondents will be asked for permission to measure their height, weight, waist and blood pressure in a standardised way which will provide a more accurate picture of Australia’s risk factor levels. The ABS interviewer will give the respondents a measurement card listing these readings.

The AHS will collect biomedical information from respondents who volunteer. The respondent will provide the ABS with written consent before being referred for pathology tests. A parent or guardian will be asked to provide consent for children under the age of 16. Children aged 5 years and over are being asked to provide a urine sample only, while those aged 12 years and over will be asked to provide both a blood and urine sample and requested to fast for 8 -12 hours if possible.

Participants will receive their biomedical test results directly from Sonic Healthcare* within 2–3 weeks of providing samples. A participant may also nominate a medical practitioner to receive a copy of their results. If any critical or concerning results are found during analysis, the pathologist will contact the nominated medical practitioner, if available, or directly contact the participant to advise them on the recommended course of action. The pathologist will also send a registered letter containing the test results to the participant and make further contact in order to fulfil their duty of care to the participant.

For more detailed information about the survey please open the Information Sheet for GPs attached below:

Stakeholder consultation has been an important component in the development of the Australian Health Survey.

Consultation with a wide range of stakeholders has been undertaken to:

• inform stakeholders about the project - its purpose, design and intended outcomes
  
• draw on expertise from a wide range of sources to influence the design of the survey

The ABS has undertaken significant stakeholder consultation through:

• Seminars – conducted in all States and Territories
  
• Meetings – with a wide range of stakeholders
  
• Briefings – for key stakeholders
  
• Focus groups – testing key issues
  
• Website feedback
  
• Media and public interactions

A copy of the presentation used in the Seminar program is available on request from the ABS by emailing health@abs.gov.au. Please include "AHS Seminar presentation" in the subject line of your email, thank you.

Several key themes have emerged from these consultations, including advice that:

• the survey is well supported by a wide range of stakeholders and that there is a strong potential demand for the data

• the addition of the new nutrition, detailed physical activity and the biomedical data are highly valued information when combined with other health, health service use and risk factor data

• there are specific aspects of each of the components of the survey where:
  
  • new themes and concepts need to be tested;
    
  • alignment with previous data is important; and
    
  • specific indicators or information is required to meet reporting obligations
  
  
• access to the information from the survey is important to the stakeholders and that defining data uses in the planning process will be helpful to the end design. To support this access, several options should be provided for different audiences.

• the proposed set of biomedical tests are supported and arrangements to provide results back to respondents and their doctors are valued

• data linkage of the survey results should be considered as an option to add further to the AHS by the ABS

• providing a storage option for biomedical samples from the AHS should be considered as it would provide for future research studies

• that a long term strategy for a repetition of the Australian Health Survey be considered to accommodate rapidly changing risk factor behaviours and more slowly changing health status patterns

For further information on biomarker selection and the objectives of the biomedical component of the AHS, please see http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/health-pubhlth-strateg-food-monitoring.htm#biomedical

(please note that this links to a page external to the ABS website)

The pilot test evaluated the proposed content for physical activity and nutrition and assessed potential participation in the biomedical part of the survey. It also tested the level of respondent understanding of the survey and how long the survey took to complete.

Some of the issues that were tested with respondents were:

· participation in sport;
· existing medical conditions;
· how they get to work and or school; and
· what food the respondent ate in the previous 24 hour period.

The ABS also tested the use of survey equipment such as: pedometers, blood pressure monitors, scales and stadiometers.

The ABS will use the results of the pilot test to make improvements to the final survey in 2011, which will be tested one more time in a dress rehearsal before going into the field early to mid 2011.

The ABS would also like to thank all the respondents for their participation in the pilot test.

The ABS has been conducting stakeholder consultations around Australia over the last few months. These have been in the form of small group meetings and in some locations larger presentations and discussion sessions. Nearly 600 interested stakeholders have attended these presentations. Officers from the Department of Health and Ageing have attended these consultations, providing technical support and listening to stakeholder views. These sessions consisted of a presentation to inform stakeholders of the AHS survey plans and approaches followed by discussions. A copy of the presentation is available to stakeholders by contacting the following email address health@abs.gov.au

The ABS would like to thank all those who have participated in these discussions – your feedback has been valuable in forming views about the survey content, what your information needs are and how you would like the data provided for use.

Some of the key issues raised at these sessions were:

• The level of nutritional information available
• Consistency with other health related data sets
• Data linkage possibilities
• Types of pathology tests applied to the biomedical samples
• Practical issues in running the survey in Indigenous communities
• Access to data and collaborative data analysis arrangements
• Feedback from pilot tests
• Content suggestions in physical activity, nutrition, conditions and health determinants

An Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Technical Panel has been formed by the Department of Health and Ageing to ensure that cultural sensitivities are maintained throughout the process of the Survey development. This Panel is providing advice on the survey components, ensuring they are appropriate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples living in both remote and non-remote communities.

The ABS conducted a number of pretesting exercises with Indigenous communities in August 2010, with positive feedback and engagement from these communities. The results from these exercises are contributing to the ongoing development of the survey content and processes.

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Find out more about the Australian Health Survey here