Input coding
Input coding is the process by which certain data items were categorised during the interview. In the 2017-18 NHS, this included the ABS standard classifications:
- Country of birth of respondent and their parents
- Main language spoken at home
- Occupation
- Industry and industry sector
- Educational qualification
- Relationship within a household.
Interviewers were able to code from a list of commonly used options (for example, 10 common languages spoken at home) or from a more comprehensive list contained within a 'trigram coder' (which allowed the interviewer to enter the first three letters of a response, then select the appropriate response from a pick list of options).
An outline of the input coding undertaken follows:
- Country of birth of respondent and their parents - respondents were asked their country of birth and that of their father and mother. Interviewers were provided with a list of 10 frequently reported countries to choose from. If the reported country was not within this list, interviewers could select the appropriate response from the trigram coder which was based on the Standard Australian Classification of Countries (SACC), 2011 (cat. no 1269.0).
- Main language spoken at home - respondents were asked which language they mainly spoke at home. Interviewers were provided with a list of 10 frequently reported languages to choose from. If the reported language was not within this list, interviewers could select the appropriate response from the trigram coder which was based on the Australian Standard Classification of Languages (ASCL), 2016 (cat. no 1267.0).
- Occupation - occupation relates to the main job held by employed respondents at the time of interview. Occupation was office coded, based on a description of the kind of work performed, as reported by respondents. Occupation was coded to the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO), 2013, Version 1.2 (cat. no 1220.0). An output item has also been included for occupations classified to the ANZSCO 2009.
- Industry and industry sector - these relate to the main job held by employed respondents at the time of interview. These were office coded based on the name of employer and the respondent's description of the business or service carried out at the respondent's workplace. Industry was coded to the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC), 2006 (Revision 2.0) (cat. no. 1292.0).
- Educational qualification - level and field of highest non-school educational qualification, and level and field of current study were coded to the Australian Standard Classification of Education (ASCED), 2001 (cat. no. 1272.0). The 2017-18 and 2014-15 NHS collected level of highest qualification using a trigram coder, whereas in the 2011-13 Australian Health Survey (AHS) this was collected via an interviewer coded list and text entry field.
- Relationship within a household - collected from a responsible adult in the household at commencement of the interviews. They provide basic information about all persons who live in the household. Household composition, family composition and other relationship variables are then produced either via derivations within the instrument, or via office coding.
More detail regarding use of these classifications, except relationship in household, is contained in Appendix 3: ABS Standard Classifications.
Further information about the categories available for each classification can be found in the data item list available in Excel spreadsheet format from the Downloads page of this product.
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