EXPLANATORY NOTES
DATA SOURCES AND DEFINITIONS
1 The 2007-08 National Health Survey, interviewed one adult (aged 18 years or more) and one child (where applicable) for each sampled dwelling. The survey was designed to obtain national benchmarks on a wide range of health issues, including the health status of the population, health related aspects of lifestyle and other risk factors; and the use of health services and other actions people had recently taken for their health. For more explanation about the survey design, methodology, quality and interpretation of results, please refer to the National Health Survey: User Guide, 2007-08 (cat.no. 4363.0.55.001).
2 The NHS uses the short disability module to measure the disability status of respondents. This short module is a set of 10 questions and a series of prompt cards, which apply the same criteria as the Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers (SDAC) to identify people with disabilities and the severity of their restrictions. The questions in the short module are compatible with the Activities and participation component of the International Classification of Functioning and are based directly on the questions used in the SDAC. However, an analysis of the data collected from a number of surveys using the short disability module indicate there are issues with the quality of the data being obtained from it. For a full discussion of this analysis please see ABS Sources of Disability Information, 2003-2008 (cat.no. 4431.0.55.002). Whilst it should be noted the ABS does not recommend the use of data from the short module to compare or update disability prevalence rates in the period between SDACs, the prevalence rates of the Profoundly/Severely disabled population in the NHS corresponds well with that obtained from the SDAC and as a result, forms the basis for the analysis conducted in this paper. The paper also includes comparisons of people who have no disability or long-term restrictive health condition. It should be noted the short disability module appears to underestimate the size of this population and therefore any differences identified between the Profoundly/Severely disabled and those with no disability or long-term restrictive health condition may be understated.
3 For more information about ABS health conditions measures, see National Health Survey: User's Guide, 2007-08 (cat.no. 4363.0.55.001).
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