Output datasets
Information from the survey was stored electronically in the form of data items. In some cases, items were formed directly from individual survey questions while in others, items were derived from answers to several questions (e.g. Body Mass Index derived from measured height and weight). Some items were derived with reference to information from other organisations such as the National Health and Medical Research Council (e.g. in relation to guidelines on consumption of alcohol).
Datasets from the 2017-18 NHS and 2017-18 pooled NHIH are hierarchical in nature. A hierarchical data file is an efficient means of storing and retrieving information which describes one to many, or many to many, relationships; e.g. a person may report multiple days on which alcohol was consumed and also multiple types of alcoholic beverages on each of these days.
The structure of the 2017-18 NHS dataset is as follows:
- Household level - containing information about household size and structure, dwelling characteristics (including geographic classifications), and household income details.
- All Persons in Household level - containing basic demographic and relationship information about all members of households, including those members selected in the survey.
- Selected Person level - which is the main level, containing all demographic and socio-economic characteristics of survey respondents, and most of the health and related information they provided.
- Condition level - containing detailed information about the health conditions reported by respondents.
- Medications level - containing information about the types of medications and supplements used by respondents.
- Alcohol - Day Consumed level - containing information on alcohol consumption on the three most recent days on which respondents reported consuming alcohol, and the order of consumption.
- Alcohol - Type Consumed level - containing information on the order of consumption and the broad alcohol types and quantities for each type consumed on those days.
- Health Literacy level - containing information from the voluntary health literacy questionnaire which covers how people find, understand and use health information, and how they manage their health and interact with the health system and healthcare providers.
Data about households and families are contained as individual characteristics on person records. The questionnaire, data items and related output categories for this topic are available in pdf / Excel spreadsheet format from the Downloads
page of this product.
Data from the 2017-18 NHS and the 2017-18 Survey of Income and Housing (SIH) was combined to produce the National Health Survey and Survey of Income and Housing pooled dataset (NHIH), in order to enable more accurate smoker status estimates.
The structure of the 2017-18 pooled NHIH dataset is as follows:
- Household level - containing information about household size and structure, dwelling characteristics (including geographic classifications), and household income details.
- Selected Person level - which is the main level, containing demographic and socio-economic characteristics of survey respondents, and smoking related information they provided.
Data about households and families are contained as individual characteristics on person records. The questionnaire, data items and related output categories for this dataset will be released at a later date.
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