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OVERVIEW

INTRODUCTION
This publication provides information about the release of microdata from the 1995 National Nutrition Survey (NNS). The data are released as a confidentialised unit record file (CURF) on CD-ROM and floppy disk under the conditions set out in this publication and with the approval of the Australian Statistician.

The CURF will enable purchasers to tabulate, manipulate and analyse data to their own specifications.

More detailed information to assist in using the CURF and interpreting the data will be provided in a technical paper which will accompany the file.


ABOUT THE SURVEY

The 1995 NNS is a comprehensive survey of Australians' diets. Detailed information was collected from people aged two years and over on food and beverage intake, physical measures, food-related habits and attitudes, and usual frequency of consumption of selected foods. Nutrient intake was later derived from reported food and beverage intake. The survey was a joint project between the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and the Commonwealth Department of Health and Family Services.

The survey was conducted from February 1995 to March 1996 in all States and Territories across urban and rural areas. A sample of participants from the 1995 National Health Survey (NHS) were invited to participate in the NNS, with the NNS interview taking place several weeks after the NHS interview.

The survey was conducted under the authority of the Census and Statistics Act 1905, on a voluntary basis.

The NHS sampled approximately 23,800 private dwellings (houses, flats, etc.) and non-private dwellings (including hotels, boarding houses and institutions). Households were selected at random using a stratified multistage area sample which ensured that persons within each State and Territory had a known and, in the main, equal chance of selection in the NHS.

Certain groups of persons were excluded from the scope of the NHS. These were non-Australian diplomatic personnel and non-Australian members of their households, persons from overseas holidaying in Australia, members of non-Australian defence forces and their dependants stationed in Australia, and persons in special dwellings (including hotels, boarding houses and institutions).

The NNS sample was systematically selected from the base NHS sample of private dwellings only. Approximately 13,800 persons aged two years and over agreed to participate in the NNS.

The NNS was conducted on a maximum of two in-scope people per household in urban areas and three in-scope people in rural households. To increase the sample in Queensland, three people were taken in both urban and rural households. These people were randomly selected from those living in the household. In addition, all people aged 65 years and over, who lived in households selected for the NNS, were invited to participate in the NNS.

A sub-sample of approximately 1,500 NNS participants provided Day 2 food intake data. This was for a second 24-hour period on a different day of the week and usually within 10 days of the first interview.

Detailed information about the survey is contained in the National Nutrition Survey: Users' Guide, 1995 (Cat. no. 4801.0). An overview of survey results is contained in National Nutrition Survey: Selected Highlights, Australia, 1995 (Cat. no. 4802.0).

Two further publications are proposed for release:

• National Nutrition Survey: Foods Eaten, Australia, 1995 (Cat. no. 4804.0).

• National Nutrition Survey: Nutrient Intake, Australia, 1995 (Cat. no. 4805.0).
  
  In addition to these publications and the CURF, an extensive range of other unpublished data is available on request.

• NNS data file. This contains 13,858 confidentialised respondent records from the survey. Each record contains food and nutrition data from the survey, together with demographic, socioeconomic and geographic items. This file contains some information collected in the NHS which was considered integral to the NNS (e.g. breastfeeding, exercise and self-reported height and weight).
  
• NHS data file. This contains a full set of NHS information for NNS respondents. This can be merged with the NNS data file through a common identifier.
  
• NNS Day 2 data file. This contains 1,490 respondent records for those people who provided food intake data for a second 24-hour period (Day 2). The ABS has used this file to calculate factors which can be applied to nutrient intake data on the NNS data file, with the aim of reducing within-person variation. The NNS Day 2 data file is intended for people wishing to undertake similar analyses, and can be merged with the NNS data file through a common identifier.
  
  These data are released under the Census and Statistics Act 1905, which enables release of data in the form of unit records where the information is not likely to enable the identification of a particular person or organisation. Accordingly, there are no names or addresses of survey respondents on the CURF and some other steps have been taken to protect confidentiality, such as omitting selected data items collected in the survey and reducing the detail of other data items. As a result, it may not be possible to exactly reconcile some tabular/aggregated data produced from the CURF with data published by the ABS.
  
  A list of all the data items on the NNS data file is provided in this publication (pp. 7-19), and data items for which the level of detail has been reduced are also included (pp. 35-38). The NNS Day 2 data file contains information about food and nutrient intake over the second 24-hour period only. A list of all the data items on the NHS data file is also provided (see pp. 20-34).
  

• NNSD1URT.DAT is a column delimited ASCII text file containing the survey data. The number of records for each State and Territory is shown below:
  
  New South Wales 2 881
  Victoria 2 805
  Queensland 2 396
  South Australia 1 727
  Western Australia
  Tasmania 1 177
  Northern Territory 357
  Australian Capital Territory 663
  Australia 13 858
  
  • NNSD1DOC.TXT contains documentation on NNSD1URT.DAT. It includes data item labels, field start positions and lengths, code values and category labels. To assist users in analysis, the file also contains weighted and unweighted frequencies of each code value. It can be opened for reading or printing, using most word processors, as an ASCII text file.
    
  • NNSD1DOC.FMT contains the same data as NNSD1DOC.TXT but in a rigid format which can be read by a computer program. If the purchaser has access to SAS, this file can be used in conjunction with NS95INP.SAS (see next page) to generate a SAS input program for the NNS data file.

• NHS95URT.DAT is a column delimited ASCII text file containing the complete set of NHS data, for the 13,858 respondents to the NNS.
  
• NHS95DOC.TXT contains documentation on NHS95URT.DAT. It includes data item labels, field start positions and lengths, code values and category labels. To assist users in analysis, the file also contains weighted and unweighted frequencies of each code value. It can be opened for reading or printing, using most word processors, as an ASCII text file.
  
• NHS95DOC.FMT contains the same data as NHS95DOC.TXT but in a rigid format which can be read by a computer program. If the purchaser has access to SAS, this file can be used in conjunction with NS95INP.SAS (see below) to generate a SAS input program for the NHS data file.

• NNSD2URT.DAT is a column delimited ASCII text file containing the Day 2 food and beverage intake data, for the 1,489 people who completed a Day 2 interview.

• NNSD2DOC.TXT contains documentation on NNSD2URT.DAT. It includes data item labels, field start positions and lengths, code values and category labels. To assist users in analysis, the file also contains weighted and unweighted frequencies of each code value. It can be opened for reading or printing, using most word processors, as an ASCII text file.

• NNSD2DOC.FMT contains the same data as NNSD2DOC.TXT but in a rigid format which can be read by a computer program. If the purchaser has access to SAS, this file can be used in conjunction with NS95INP.SAS (see below) to generate a SAS input program for the NNS Day 2 data file.
  

• NNS95INP.SAS contains a SAS program which reads NNSD1DOC.FMT, NHS95DOC.FMT and NNSD2DOC.FMT and generates a file which can be pasted into a SAS program to allow it to read in the corresponding data file.

• NUTADJ.TXT contains age and sex specific factors that can be used to adjust nutrient intakes derived from the 24-hour recall questionnaire for within-person variation. This can be applied to the NNS data file to derive adjusted nutrient intakes.

• Reference databases used to code the food intake data from the 24-hour recall.

• COPRIGHT.TXT contains the ABS copyright warning notice. This is a simple statement that the copyright to the 1995 NNS CURF data is held by the ABS. The consequences of copyright ownership are to be considered an additional constraint and in no way limit the Conditions of Sale.

• README.TXT contains a brief description of each of the files listed above.
  
  

• not attempt to identify particular persons or organisations;

• not attempt to match the information with administrative lists of persons or organisations;

• use the information only for statistical purposes; and

• not disclose the information to any other person or organisation.
  

• the manipulation of the data to produce means, correlations or other descriptive or summary measures;
• the estimation of population characteristics from sample data;
• the use of data as input to mathematical models or for other types of analysis (e.g. factor analysis); and
• to provide graphical or pictorial representations of the characteristics of the population or subsets of the population.
  
  Use of the data for unauthorised purposes may render you liable to severe penalties (see p. 40). Advice about the propriety of any particular intended use of the data is available from the Director, Health Section, telephone Canberra 02 6252 7995.
  
  Under no circumstances can data in the form of unit records be made available to persons or organisations other than those covered by the Undertaking, without the written authority of the Australian Statistician.
  
  While the utmost care is taken in preparing and handling each CURF, deterioration may occur between the time of copying and receipt of the file. Accordingly, if the file is unreadable on receipt and this is reported to the ABS within 30 days of receipt, it will be replaced free of charge. As an added precaution, a security copy (backup) of the file should be made on receipt.