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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 2012-13 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey (NATSIHS) and National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey (NATSINPAS) also included respondents who refused to have their height, weight, waist and hip circumference or blood pressure measured.

To improve the sample representativeness of the surveys generally, as well as for the biomedical component (NATSIHMS) and the second day dietary recall and pedometer component (in NATSINPAS), 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 371 and 180 households respectively to the NATSIHS and NATSINPAS samples. Note that this is consistent with the approach taken for previous ABS Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander surveys.


National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey

A total of 7,123 private dwellings were selected in the sample for the NATSIHS (identified by screening or community selections), reduced to an actual sample of 6,701 dwellings after sample loss in the field stage.

Of the 6,701 dwellings in the actual sample, 5,371 (80.2%) were fully or adequately responding households. Details of response rates are provided below.

			Number of households no.	Proportion of households %
Selected households			7 123	100.0
Sample loss
	Vacant dwelling		86	1.2
	All persons out of scope/coverage		89	1.2
	Other sample loss(a)		247	3.5
	Total sample loss		422	5.9
Selected households after sample loss			6 701	94.1
Responding households
Selected households after sample loss			6 701	100.0
	Fully/adequately responding households		5 371	80.2
	Not adequately responding households
		Full/part refusal	351	5.2
		Full/part non-contact	754	11.3
		Language problems	5	0.1
		Death or illness	141	2.1
		Other	79	1.2
		Total not adequately responding	1 330	19.8
(a) Includes situations such as selected persons away for enumeration period, no adult in household, no longer any Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander persons identified, 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)	915	675	1 220	764	1 173	562	1 190	202	6 701
Households in sample	736	456	1 015	577	936	504	977	170	5 371
Response rate (%)	80.4	67.6	83.2	75.5	79.8	89.7	82.1	84.2	80.2
Persons in sample	1 310	789	1 823	979	1 623	887	1 598	308	9 317

National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey

A total of 3,861 private dwellings were selected in the sample for the NATSINPAS (identified by screening or community selections), reduced to an actual sample of 3,661 dwellings after sample loss in the field stage.

Of the 3,661 dwellings in the actual sample, 2,900 (79.2%) were fully or adequately responding households. Details of response rates are provided below.

			Number of households no.	Proportion of households %
Selected households			3 861	100.0
Sample loss
	Vacant dwelling		42	1.1
	All persons out of scope/coverage		19	0.5
	Other sample loss(a)		139	3.6
	Total sample loss		200	5.2
Selected households after sample loss			3 661	94.8
Responding households
Selected households after sample loss			3 661	100.0
	Fully/adequately responding households		2 900	79.2
	Not adequately responding households
		Full/part refusal	235	6.4
		Full/part non-contact	406	11.1
		Language problems	1	0.0
		Death or illness	77	2.1
		Other	42	1.1
		Total not adequately responding	761	20.8
(a) Includes situations such as selected persons away for enumeration period, no adult in household, no longer any Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander persons identified, 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)	804	103	1263	215	461	126	667	22	3 661
Households in sample	636	67	1 025	153	358	114	531	16	2 900
Response rate (%)	79.1	65.0	81.2	71.2	77.7	90.5	79.6	72.7	79.2
Persons in sample	865	88	1467	204	524	150	785	26	4 109

NATSINPAS CATI

The NATSINPAS CATI was only offered to non-remote respondents. Participation in the CATI required the non-remote 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. Response rates for the CATI will be made available in future releases.

Combined NATSIHS/NATSINPAS (the Core)

The NATSIHS and NATSINPAS samples have been combined to provide a combined sample, known as the Core, of 8, 237 households and 12,947 respondents aged 2 years and over. The Core sample contains items common to both NATSIHS and NATSINPAS.

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)	1 719	778	2 483	979	1 634	688	1 857	224	10 362
Households in sample	1 366	518	2 031	726	1 288	616	1 506	186	8 237
Response rate (%)	79.5	66.6	81.8	74.2	78.8	89.5	81.1	83.0	79.5
Persons in sample	2 105	824	3 190	1 133	2 051	1 002	2 321	321	12 947

		Number of persons no.	Proportion of persons %
Fully responding interview (2+)		12 947	100.0
Fully responding interview (5+)		11 853	100.0
Measured height (2+)		10 642	82.2
Measured weight (2+)		10 688	82.6
Measured hip circumference (2+)		10 422	80.5
Measured waist circumference (2+)		10 491	81.0
Blood pressure (5+)
	Measured	9 472	79.9
	Valid reading	9 214	77.7

			Number of persons no.(a)	Proportion of persons %
Fully responding interview (18+)			8 157	100.0
Did not proceed to Biomedical component
	Not offered(b)		115	1.4
	Refused		1 947	23.9
	Considering		56	0.7
	Gave consent but did not participate		2 746	33.7
Biomedical Participants (18+)			3 293	40.4
	Urine sample provided		3 105	38.1
	Blood sample provided
		Fasting sample	2 200	27.0
		Non-fasting sample	1 061	13.0

		NON-REMOTE Number of persons no.	NON-REMOTE Proportion of persons %	REMOTE Number of persons no.	REMOTE Proportion of persons %.
Fully responding interview		4549	100.0	3608	100.0
Did not proceed to Biomedical component		3270	71.9	1594	44.2
Biomedical Participants		1279	28.1	2014	55.8
(a) 18 years and over