4817.0.55.001 - Information Paper: Use of the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale in ABS Health Surveys, Australia, 2007-08  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 04/04/2012   
   Page tools: Print Print Page Print all pages in this productPrint All  
Contents >> Background >> Inclusion of the K10 in other Australian Surveys

INCLUSION OF THE K10 IN OTHER AUSTRALIAN SURVEYS
The K10 is widely used in a range of Australian government and non-government collections, including:

    - the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey;
    - the National Drug Strategy Household Survey (NDSHS);
    - the National Prisoner Health Census;
    - the Australian Mental Health National Outcomes and Casemix Collection (NOCC) measures; and
    - State-based population computer assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) health surveys, including:
      - the New South Wales (NSW) Population Health Survey;
      - the Victoria (VIC) Population Health Survey;
      - the Western Australia (WA) Health & Wellbeing Surveillance System (HWSS);
      - the South Australia (SA) Monitoring and Surveillance System (SAMSS); and
      - the Queensland (QLD), Northern Territory (NT), Tasmania (TAS) and Australian Capital Territory (ACT), Smoking, Nutrition, Physical Activity, Stress (SNAPS) surveys.

The ABS Information Paper, Producing National Estimates from State Health Surveys, 2004 (cat. no. 4375.0.55.001), shows comparative K10 results between pooled State Surveys and the 2004-05 NHS.

MEDICARE BENEFITS SCHEDULE
Under the MBS, the K10 is one of the recommended outcomes tools for a GP to use for assessment and review before referring a patient to allied health professionals (e.g. psychologists) as part of a GP health management plan (DoHA, 2011). Other tools used include the Short Form 12 (SF-12) and Health of the Nation Outcome Scales (HoNOS).

INCLUSION OF K10 AND K6 IN INTERNATIONAL SURVEYS
The K10 is used in a series of epidemiological surveys across 27 countries from all regions of the world as part of the WMH Survey Initiative (Kessler & Ustun, 2004), as well as being used in the Canadian National Health Interview Survey (NHIS).

As noted above, the K6 is a core measure in the US NHIS and the US National Household Survey of Drug Abuse.



Previous PageNext Page