CHANGES TO THE CLASSIFICATIONS AND CODING LISTS
Activities
The same nature and purpose activity classifications were used for the 2006 survey as was used for 1997 (with the exception of some minor revisions). There were, however, significant changes between the 1992 Activity Classification and the 1997 and 2006 classifications. A concordance data item has been built applying the 'for whom' and 'communication/technology' data items to the 1997 and 2006 activity classifications to achieve a reasonable level of comparability with the 1992 classification.
Communication and Technology
Communication in 1997 and 2006 was coded in a different way from 1992. In 1997 and 2006, the communication/technology supplementary classification allows the coding of communication episodes to the activity being discussed. For example, if the respondent recorded that they phoned their daughter to ask her to bring in the washing, this would be coded to 'bringing in and hanging out the washing' with a communication/technology code of 'phone'. To allow for direct comparisons with 1992, the 'purpose of the activity' data item was amended to move these episodes of communication to correspond with the 1992 communication codes.
Communication in 2006 was coded in a different way from 1997. There were additional categories used to capture different forms of communication and technology that may have been more commonly used in 2006 including mobile phones and the Internet. The coding list was also split into two groups so that activities involving communication were coded differently to activities that utilised technology but were not related to communication. For example, there was a different code used to distinguish communication via the Internet (such as email) than for an activity involving the use of the Internet (such as doing research) that does not involve communication. This allowed all technology use to be captured for the primary activities instead of only collecting information on the technology used for communication. Communication and technology codes were only coded for primary activities.
For whom
The 'for whom' column records an important aspect of each activity: its purpose. This column identifies the activities people have done for themselves and those done for other people or organisations. The 2006 coding list for this variable was slightly different to the 1997 coding list. In 2006, activities that were done for family members within the household were coded differently depending on whether the household members were sick, frail or with a disability or whether they were well. In 1997 there was not a distinction between whether the activity was done for a family member in the household who was well or whether it was done for a family member who was sick, frail or with a disability. This information was only collected and coded for the primary activity. Secondary activities do not have any information associated with them about the purpose of the activity.
Location
Location is coded for both the physical location (e.g. own house or workplace) and the spatial location (e.g. indoors or outdoors). For 2006, an additional category was added for physical location to distinguish time spent at beaches, rivers, or lakes from other country settings. Furthermore, an additional category was added to include a spatial location of waiting in cars separate from waiting indoors or outdoors.
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