2062.0 - Census Data Enhancement Project: An Update, Oct 2010

ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 15/10/2010

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Contents >> Census Data Enhancement Project - 2011 >> 2 Bringing together 2011 Census data with a small number of predetermined datasets during Census processing using name and address, to create statistical outputs >> 2.2 Enhancing Australia's Cancer Statistics Project

2.2 Enhancing Australian Cancer Statistics Project

The ABS is looking to undertake a project temporarily bringing together 2011 Census data with data from the Australian Cancer database maintained by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare to:

to develop additional national cancer statistics not currently available; and
to gain a quality measure of the identification of Indigenous status in the national cancer data base and potentially an adjustment factor to improve the estimates of cancer incidence and mortality for the Indigenous community.

Benefits of the Enhance Australian Cancer Statistics Project

There are substantial benefits in improving our understanding of the relationship between socio-economic variables such as income, education, location and housing, on cancer risks and their outcomes. Are some groups more prone to certain cancers, and are some groups showing different levels of mortality resulting from cancer?

The improvement in the identification of Indigenous status will improve knowledge of cancer risks in the Indigenous community. Currently Indigenous status is only provided to Cancer registries via hospitalisation and mortality data, both of which are known to under-enumerate Indigenous persons. By undertaking a cross check with the Census, this will confirm existing Indigenous persons on the cancer data base, identify not previously identified Indigenous persons and also identify Indigenous persons identified through the cancer data base that were not identified in the Census. Adjusted statistics for the Indigenous community may be able to be calculated. This work is consistent with the COAG National Partnership Agreement on "Closing the Gap in Indigenous Health Outcomes".

Data involved in the Enhancing Australian Cancer Statistics Project

This project will temporarily bring together, in the ABS, data from the 2011 Census and the Australian Cancer database maintained by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare using name and address during the Census processing period. Once the purpose of the project has been fulfilled, all linked datasets will be destroyed.