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KIDNEY DISEASE

Definition

This topic refers to those ever told by a doctor or nurse they have kidney disease and who consider they currently have kidney disease.

In addition to self report data for kidney disease, information on chronic kidney diseases was also collected from the NHMS. For more details on this biomedical component, see the Biomedical Measures chapter of this Users' Guide.

Population

Information was obtained for all persons in the NHS and persons aged 2 years and over in the NNPAS.

Methodology

Information about kidney disease was collected in both the NHS and the NNPAS surveys. Information on kidney disease was first published in the First Results publication based on the NHS only sample of approximately 20,500 people of all ages. Updated results on kidney disease for the larger combined, core sample of approximately 32,000 people aged 2 years and over was published in the Updated Results publication. For comparison of kidney disease with NHS only items or the 0-1 year old population, the NHS file should be used and similarly for comparison with NNPAS only items, the NNPAS file should be used. However, for the most accurate information for kidney disease alone or comparison with other items collected in the core, the core file should be used. For more information on the structure of the AHS, see the Structure of the Australian Health Survey page of this Users' Guide.

Respondents were asked whether they had ever been told by a doctor or a nurse that they had kidney disease and whether they currently had the condition. Respondents with kidney disease were assumed to have the condition long-term.

NHS respondents were asked whether they had ever had dialysis or used a kidney machine.

NHS respondents who reported having current kidney disease were sequenced to the Actions module where they were asked questions about the number of times they had seen a GP, specialist, etc.

NHS respondents were asked in a later module about all medications and health supplements that they were taking, but not in relation to any specific condition.

Data items

The data items and related output categories for this topic are available in Excel spreadsheet format from the Downloads page of this product.

Interpretation

Points to be considered in interpreting data for this topic include the following:

• Respondents may not have distinguished between kidney disease, kidney stones or kidney infection. Kidney stones and kidney infection may be short-term conditions. Distinction cannot be made from the data between the various kidney ailments and as such there may be respondents incorrectly classified as long-term. However given the prevalence of kidney disease is expected to be an underestimate, it is considered that the impact is minimal.
• Those cases of kidney disease reported through the 'Long-term conditions' module, rather than the 'kidney disease' module, have not necessarily been diagnosed by a doctor or nurse. Data for these respondents only appear on the NHS file, and are identified by their conditions status of 4: Not known if ever told or not ever told, but condition current and long-term.
• As this is a household-based survey, those people with kidney disease resident in hospitals, nursing or convalescent homes, or similar accommodation are outside the scope of this survey. As a result, the survey will under-represent those with more severe complications of the condition.