2.3 DATA COLLECTION AND DATA ITEM DESCRIPTION
INTERVIEW PROCEDURES
Experienced ABS interviewers were employed to collect HES and SIH data. They were given comprehensive training and were provided with detailed written instructions to complement the survey documents.
Information for each household was collected using:
- a household level computer assisted interview questionnaire which collected information on:
- household characteristics and certain assets and liabilities for all households
- expenditure common to all household members (e.g. health service payments), and irregular or infrequent expenditure (e.g. household appliances and holidays overseas) for households selected for the HES
- an individual level computer assisted interview questionnaire which collected information on:
- income, certain assets and liabilities, and personal characteristics from each usual resident aged 15 years and over in all households
- certain additional data for each usual resident aged 15 years and over in households selected for the HES
- children's income and financial stress data for certain adults in households selected for the HES
- a personal diary in which usual residents aged 15 years and over in households selected for the HES recorded their expenditure over two weeks.
Interviewers maintained contact with households over a series of visits, as follows.
- In an initial contact interview, the interviewer obtained information on the numbers and characteristics of people usually resident in the dwelling. If a responsible adult was not available, the interviewer called back at another time. The interviewer also arranged a convenient time to call back to talk with all the usual residents of the dwelling as a group in a placement interview. If that was not possible, then additional interviews were arranged to ensure that all usual residents were covered by the survey.
- In the placement interview(s), the interviewer:
- completed one household questionnaire for each household
- completed an individual questionnaire for each usual resident aged 15 years and over
- provided each usual resident aged 15 years and over of households selected for the HES with a diary in which they were asked to record details of each purchase they made over the following two weeks, starting the day after the interview.
- If a usual resident could not be present for the initial placement interview, or for reasons of confidentiality requested to have a private interview, the interviewer returned at an agreed time and added the person’s information to his or her household’s household questionnaire and completed the person’s individual questionnaire.
- Three diary visits were performed. The first was between two and four days after the placement interview to ensure that survey participants were not having difficulties. The second was to pick up the first week’s diary and to drop off the second. The third was at the end of the diary keeping period, and was to pick up the second diary and thank participants for their help in providing HES information.
DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS
A representation of the computer assisted interview questionnaires used in the HES and SIH, and a copy of the diaries placed with respondents to the HES, can be downloaded as separate pdf files from the "Details" tab of the website entry for this publication.
Data items available
A listing of all the data items available from the HES and the SIH is presented in Appendix 4. The Household Expenditure Classification (HEC) used to classify the HES expenditure data is available in Appendix 5, and the HEC coding list is presented in Appendix 6. For more details about the data items, see Part 3 Data Availability.
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