USING THE SURVEY TABLEBUILDER
Introduction
For general information relating to the Survey TableBuilder or instructions on how to use features of the Survey TableBuilder product, please refer to the User Manual: Survey TableBuilder, 2011 (cat. no. 1406.0.55.005).
Information relating to survey methodologies, such as the counting units and weights applied to the Survey TableBuilder dataset, are explained in the Survey Methodology section.
The Survey TableBuilder dataset contains nine of the ten levels of data applicable to the SDAC. Information on the ten survey levels and their structure is provided in the File Structure section.
Level 8 (All Recipients), has not been released in Survey TableBuilder due to the complexity involved in using and interpreting data on this level. Unlike other sub-person levels, the All Recipients level contains a ‘many to many’ relationship. This describes the ability for a ‘Recipient of care’ to have multiple 'Carers' while a 'Carer' can also have multiple ‘Recipients of care’. To discuss your data needs relating to this level, please contact the ABS National Information Referral Service (NIRS) on 1300 135 070.
Data Restrictions
In total, 51 records have been removed from the SDAC dataset for use in the Survey TableBuilder in order to protect and maintain confidentiality of output. This compares to 1,608 records, which were removed for the SDAC Basic CURF dataset. As such, care should be taken when comparing estimates across SDAC publications, the CURF and Survey TableBuilder output.
Further to the removal of records, the Survey TableBuilder database for SDAC contains a group of data items where a restriction applies to ensure the confidentiality of output, particularly in relation to unique households, families and income units. The restriction placed on this group of data items is known as a 'Field Exclusion Rule' and is explained further in the User Manual: Survey TableBuilder, 2011 (cat. no. 1406.0.55.005). This rule stipulates the maximum number of data items from a group that can appear in a table. Users will see the error message below if they attempt to add more than the maximum number of data items:
The Field Exclusion Rule for SDAC allows no more than two of the data items listed below to appear in a table:
- Number of children in family aged under 15
- Number of persons aged under 15 in family
- Number of persons aged under 15 in household
- Number of children in family aged 15-24 full-time employed
- Number of children in family aged 15-24 full-time student
- Number of children in family aged 15-24 full-time employed and full-time student
- Number of children in family aged 15-24 neither full time employed or full-time student
- Number of persons aged 55-59 in family
- Number of persons aged 60-64 in family
- Number of persons aged 65-69 in family
- Number of persons aged 70-74 in family
- Number of persons aged 75-79 in family
- Number of persons aged 80-84 in family
- Number of persons aged 85 and over in family
- Number of persons aged 55-59 in household
- Number of persons aged 60-64 in household
- Number of persons aged 65-69 in household
- Number of persons aged 70-74 in household
- Number of persons aged 75-79 in household
- Number of persons aged 80-84 in household
- Number of persons aged 85 and over in household
- Number of children in family aged under 15
- Number of persons aged under 15 in family
- Number of persons aged under 15 in household
Examples
EXAMPLE: USING MULTIPLE RESPONSE DATA ITEMS
EXAMPLE: USING SUB-PERSON LEVEL DATA ITEMS
EXAMPLE: FIELD EXCLUSION RULEEXAMPLE: USING MULTIPLE RESPONSE DATA ITEMS
A number of data items produced from the SDAC allow a respondent to provide more than one response. These are referred to as multiple response data items. An example of one of these items being used within the Survey TableBuilder is shown below.
In this example, a series of questions is asked in the survey, relating to each activity, in order to produce the data item 'Type(s) of activity for which aid(s) or equipment used'. Responses to these questions determine whether an aid or equipment is used for a given activity. A person may indicate the use of an aid(s) or equipment for more than one activity, meaning they have supplied multiple responses to this data item.
When a multiple response data item is tabulated, a person is counted against each category, for which they have provided a response (e.g. a person who uses an aid(s) or equipment for Toileting, Dressing and Eating will be counted against each of these three categories).
Similar to a single response data item, a person not within the appropriate population will fall into the ‘Not Applicable’ category (e.g. a person without a disability is not asked about their use of an aid(s) or equipment and is therefore considered ‘Not Applicable’ for this data item).
A category exists for persons who are in scope of the population but do not provide a valid response to any categories corresponding to the activities (i.e. a person requiring assistance for one or more activities but who does not use an aid(s) or equipment for any activities will fall into the category ‘Does not use aids or equipment’).
Therefore, each person in the appropriate population is counted at least once, while some persons are counted multiple times. The total for multiple response data items, is therefore less than or equal to the sum of its components. In the example below, the sum of the components is 24,026.2.
EXAMPLE: USING SUB-PERSON LEVEL DATA ITEMS
An individual person can be represented multiple times within a sub-person level, dependent on the number of instances in which they meet the criteria for that level. Sub-person levels are said to have a 'one to many' relationship. For example, a single individual who reported multiple health conditions on the Person level would contribute multiple records to the All Conditions level, equal to the number of health conditions they reported.
Care needs to be taken when interpreting tables, where data items have been included from both person and sub-person levels.
The table below draws upon ‘Whether has a disability’ from the Person level and ‘Extent to which need for assistance is met’ from the Broad Activities level. This table is followed by a practical demonstration of how estimates may be derived when using sub-person levels.
Note:
In order for a person to contribute record(s) to the Broad Activity level they must experience difficulty with
one or more broad activities. A record is created for each activity where the person experiences difficulty.
In the table above, the sum of the components is far greater than the total (5,955.9 versus 4,020.3). This is because, for each activity where a person experiences difficulty, a response is required to the item ‘Extent to which need for assistance is met’. A person can experience difficulty in multiple activities and can therefore contribute more than one record to the response categories for this item (i.e. Fully, Partly, Not at all and Not applicable).
The ‘Total’ refers to the number of persons contributing to the table and is derived from the person level item ‘Whether has a disability’. Only
one record can be attributed to a Person level item, unless the response categories for that item allow multiple responses.
An example of how this table is derived is shown below, where the population consists of just one person (with no weighting applied):
| Person Level – 1 record / person exists |
| Data item:
Whether has a disability? |
| Category 1) Has a disability | Yes |
| Category 2) Does not have a disability | - |
| 10 x Data items:
Whether needs assistance or has difficulty with… |
| 1) Mobility? | Yes |
| 2) Self-care? | No |
| 3) Oral communication? | No |
| 4) Health care? | Yes |
| 5) Cognitive or emotional tasks? | Yes |
| 6) Household chores? | No |
| 7) Property maintenance? | Yes |
| 8) Meal preparation? | Yes |
| 9) Reading or writing? | No |
| 10) Private transport? | No |
| Broad Activity Level – 5 records exist
(derived from responses to 10 x Person level data items) |
| Data item:
Extent to which need for assistance is met? |
| Activity
(Records 1 to 5) | Category 1 | Category 2 | Category 3 | Category 4 |
Fully | Partly | Not at all | Not applicable |
| Record 1: Mobility | Yes | - | - | - |
| Record 2: Health care | - | - | Yes | - |
| Record 3: Cognitive or emotional tasks | - | - | Yes | - |
| Record 4: Property maintenance | - | - | - | Yes |
| Record 5: Meal preparation | - | - | - | Yes |
| Whether has a disability: | Has a disability |
| Extent to which need for assistance is met |
| Fully | 1 |
| Partly | 0 |
| Not at all | 2 |
| Not applicable | 2 |
| Total | 1 |
Note:
- The total population for this table is one person, representing the number of applicable Person level records to the item ‘Whether has a disability’ (i.e. those who have a disability).
- The sum of the components for this table is five records, representing the number of instances on the Broad Activity level where a person experienced difficulty or needed assistance with an activity. These were derived from the ten person level data items.
- The applicable population for this table is three, representing the records (activities) where the person indicated experiencing difficulty and needing assistance (i.e. mobility, health care and cognitive or emotional tasks).
- The ‘not applicable’ population for this table is two, representing the records (activities) where the person indicated experiencing difficulty but not needing assistance (i.e. property maintenance and meal preparation). These two records are on the Broad Activity level but do not apply to the data item ‘Extent to which need for assistance is met'.
EXAMPLE: FIELD EXCLUSION RULE
In the table below, 'Number of children in family aged under 15' is paired with 'Number of persons aged 60-64 in family'. This allows the identification of a small number of families containing 'Three or more' children aged under 15 years
and 'two or more' persons aged 60-64 years, as shown in the table below:
The addition of another data item to this table within the 'exclusion group' is not permitted, as it may impact on the confidentiality of output. Users will see the error below when trying to add an additional item, such as 'Number of persons aged 65-69 in family'.
This page last updated 13 November 2012
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