This document was added or updated on 13/12/2013.

RESPONSE RATES

A fully responding household is one in which all parts of the interview were completed for all persons in scope. An adequately responding household is the same as a fully responding household, but with legitimate 'don't know' answers or refusals from respondents. Adequately responding households for the 2011-12 NHS and NNPAS also included respondents who refused to have their height, weight, waist circumference or blood pressure measured.

To improve the sample representativeness for the biomedical component, as well as the second day dietary recall and pedometer component in NNPAS, households that contained at least one fully responding person but also contained a selected adult or child who did not respond to the survey, were also retained and considered adequately responding. This process added an additional 77 and 162 households respectively to the NHS and NNPAS samples. Note that this is different to previous Health Surveys, which have only retained households with complete surveys for all selected respondents.

National Health Survey

A total of 21,108 private dwellings were selected in the sample for the NHS, reduced to an actual sample of 18,355 dwellings after sample loss in the field stage.

Of the 18,355 dwellings in the actual sample, 15,565 (84.8%) were fully or adequately responding households.

Details of response rates are provided below.

			Number of households no.	Proportion of households %
Selected households			21 108	100.0
Sample loss
	Vacant dwelling		1 538	7.3
	All persons out of scope/coverage		345	1.6
	Other sample loss(a)		870	4.0
	Total sample loss		2 753	13.0
Selected households after sample loss			18 355	87.0
Responding households
Selected households after sample loss			18 355	100.0
	Fully/adequately responding households		15 565	84.8
	Not adequately responding households
		Full/part refusal	491	2.7
		Full/part non-contact	1 595	8.7
		Language problems	183	1.0
		Death or illness	331	1.8
		Other	190	1.0
		Total not adequately responding	2 790	15.2
(a) Includes situations such as selected persons away for enumeration period, no adult in household, derelict dwelling, dwelling converted to non-dwelling or holiday home.

	New South Wales	Victoria	Queensland	South Australia	Western Australia	Tasmania	Northern Territory	Australian Capital Territory	Australia
Households approached (after sample loss)	3 269	3 051	2 907	2 285	2 385	1 635	1 307	1 516	18 355
Households in sample	2 736	2 516	2 457	1 962	2 144	1 469	975	1 306	15 565
Response rate (%)	83.7	82.5	84.5	85.9	89.9	89.8	74.6	86.1	84.8
Persons in sample	3 602	3 287	3 244	2 508	2 847	1 909	1 304	1 725	20 426

Completed questionnaires for the first interview were obtained for 20,426 persons in fully/adequately responding dwellings. Detailed sample counts can be found in Appendix 1.

National Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey

A total of 14,363 private dwellings were selected in the sample for the NNPAS, reduced to an actual sample of 12,366 dwellings after sample loss in the field stage.

Of the 12,366 dwellings in the actual sample, 9,519 (77.0%) were fully or adequately responding households to the first interview. Details of response rates are provided below.

			Number of households no.	Proportion of households %
Selected households			14 363	100.0
Sample loss
	Vacant dwelling		1 076	7.5
	All persons out of scope/coverage		240	1.7
	Other sample loss(a)		681	4.7
	Total sample loss		1 997	13.9
Selected households after sample loss			12 366	86.0
Responding households
Selected households after sample loss			12 366	100.0
	Fully/adequately responding households		9 519	77.0
	Not adequately responding households
		Full/part refusal	463	3.7
		Full/part non-contact	1 752	14.2
		Language problems	152	1.2
		Death or illness	358	2.9
		Other	122	1.0
		Total not adequately responding	2 847	23.0
(a) Includes situations such as selected persons away for enumeration period, no adult in household, derelict dwelling, dwelling converted to non-dwelling or holiday home.

	New South Wales	Victoria	Queensland	South Australia	Western Australia	Tasmania	Northern Territory	Australian Capital Territory	Australia
Households approached (after sample loss)	2 227	1 983	1 988	1 551	1 545	1 155	911	1 006	12 366
Households in sample	1 666	1 371	1 525	1 211	1 334	1 003	592	817	9 519
Response rate (%)	74.8	69.1	76.7	78.1	86.3	86.8	65.0	81.2	77.0
Persons in sample	2 139	1 749	1 964	1 526	1 706	1 245	763	1 061	12 153

Completed questionnaires for the first interview were obtained for 12,153 persons in fully/adequately responding dwellings. Detailed sample counts can be found in Appendix 1.


NNPAS CATI

Participation in the CATI required the respondent to provide a contact phone number (landline and/or mobile) at the time of the CAPI.

Non-response to the CATI included respondents who identified at the CAPI that they did not have a phone or refused to provide a phone number. It also included those respondents who could not be contacted for an interview (as a result of phone disconnections, non-response to contact attempts, or refusal at time of CATI). No face-to-face follow-up was conducted.

Of the 12,153 respondents who participated in the NNPAS CAPI, 7,735 (63.6%) also participated in the follow-up CATI to collect a 2nd day of Nutrition data.

Of the 11,478 respondents aged 5 years and over in the NNPAS sample, 8,154 (71.0%) agreed to participate in the Pedometer component of the survey. Of these, 6,061 respondents provided Pedometer data during the CATI interview (52.8% of those eligible to participate).

			Number of persons no.	Proportion of persons %
Fully responding CAPI (1st) interview (2+)			12 153	100.0
Fully responding CAPI (1st) interview (5+)			11 478	100.0
Did not have CATI (2nd) interview
	Refused/No phone number provided at CAPI		1 085	8.9
	Non-contact/Refusal at CATI		2 394	19.7
Had CATI (2nd) interview (2+)(a)			8 699	71.6
	Completed 2nd Dietary Recall (2+)		7 735	63.6
	Pedometer data (5+)
		Adequate response — 4 days (including 1 week day/1 weekend day)	5 626	49.0
		Inadequate response	435	3.8
		Issued pedometer but did not participate	2 093	18.2
		Did not participate	3 324	29.0

(a) Some respondents only provided either pedometer data or nutrition data.


Combined NHS/NNPAS (the Core)

The NHS and NNPAS samples have been combined to provide a combined sample known as the core of 25,080 households and 31,837 respondents aged 2 years and over. The Core sample contains items common to both NHS and NNPAS.

Detailed sample counts of respondents 2 years and over available for the combined sample can be found in Appendix 1.

	New South Wales	Victoria	Queensland	South Australia	Western Australia	Tasmania	Northern Territory	Australian Capital Territory	Australia
Households approached (after sample loss)	5 496	5 034	4 895	3 836	3 930	2 790	2 218	2 522	30 721
Households in sample	4 401	3 886	3 982	3 173	3 477	2 472	1 567	2 122	25 080
Response rate (%)	80.1	77.2	81.3	82.7	88.5	88.6	70.6	84.1	81.6
Persons in sample	5 598	4 925	5 084	3 964	4 461	3 091	2 002	2 712	31 837

		Number of persons no.	Proportion of persons %
Fully responding interview (2+)		31 837	100.0
Fully responding interview (5+)		30 329	100.0
Measured height (2+)		26 666	83.8
Measured weight (2+)		26 577	83.5
Measured waist circumference (2+)		26 268	82.5
Blood pressure (5+)
	Measured	24 693	81.4
	Valid reading	24 565	81.0

National Health Measures Survey

Of the 30,329 respondents aged 5 years and over in the combined sample, 11,246 (37.1%) participated in the biomedical component and their results are contained in the AHS data file and their respective survey files. Detailed sample counts can be found in Appendix 1.

			Number of persons no.	Proportion of persons %
Fully responding interview (5+)			30 329	100.0
Fully responding interview (12+)			27 636	100.0
Did not proceed to Biomedical component
	Not offered(a)		99	0.3
	Refused		12 655	41.7
	Considering		431	1.4
	Gave consent but did not participate		5 898	19.4
Biomedical Participants (5+)			11 246	37.1
Biomedical Participants (12+)			10 403	37.6
	Urine sample provided (5+)		10 536	34.7
	Blood sample provided (12+)
		Fasting sample	8 168	29.6
		Non-fasting sample	2 024	7.3

(a) Biomedical component was not offered in proxy interviews for adults where the respondent was not present.

Age group (years)(a)	NHMS (unweighted) %	NHS/NNPAS (unweighted) %
5-11	7.5	8.9
12-14	3.7	4.1
15-19	4.9	6.6
20-24	2.8	4.9
25-29	5.3	6.7
30-34	5.9	7.6
35-39	6.8	7.8
40-44	8.0	8.1
45-49	8.1	7.6
50-54	8.5	7.3
55-59	8.4	6.7
60-64	8.9	6.5
65-69	8.2	5.7
70-74	5.6	4.2
75-79	3.8	3.2
80-84	2.5	2.4
85 and over	1.3	1.8
(a) Weighting accounted for differences in sample distributions to ensure appropriate representation of age population in weighted estimates.

	NHMS (unweighted) %	NHS/NNPAS (unweighted) %
Males	44.5	46.5
Married(b)	58.5	52.8
Born in Australia	70.9	71.4
Has a non-school qualification(c)	62.5	59.1
In the Labour Force	63.6	66.5
Self-reported diabetes(d)	7.0	6.5
Self-reported high cholesterol(e)	12.0	9.6
Excellent or Very Good self-assessed health	53.4	52.9
Current daily smoker	12.0	17.6
Overweight/obese(f)	66.4	64.9
(a) Weighting did not account for differences in characteristics of samples as identified in this table, other than sex.
(b) Includes de facto couples.
(c) Excludes persons where level was not determined. (d) Includes persons who self-reported they had diabetes, regardless if it was current or long-term (excludes gestational diabetes). (e) Includes persons who self-reported they had high cholesterol and it was current and long-term. (f) Includes only persons for whom height and weight were measured.

Previous Page

Next Page