Household Impacts of COVID-19 Survey methodology

This publication presents results from the seventh Household Impacts of COVID-19 Survey, conducted throughout Australia between 24 June and 29 June 2020.

It is the seventh survey in a new series, designed to provide a quick snapshot about how people in Australian households are faring in response to the changing social and economic environment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Results from the earlier Household Impacts of COVID-19 Surveys can be found using the following links:

• Household Impacts of COVID-19 Survey 1–6 Apr 2020 (released 20 Apr)
• Household Impacts of COVID-19 Survey 14–17 Apr 2020 (released 1 May)
• Household Impacts of COVID-19 Survey 29 Apr–4 May 2020 (released 18 May)
• Household Impacts of COVID-19 Survey 12–15 May 2020 (released 29 May)
• Household Impacts of COVID-19 Survey 26–29 May 2020 (released 15 Jun)
• Household Impacts of COVID-19 Survey 10-15 June 2020 (released 29 Jun).
   

The seventh survey collected data about the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on jobs, lifestyle, stressors, wellbeing, moving house, health precautions and use of health services. This information is critical to informing the government response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia.

More Household Impacts of COVID-19 Surveys focusing on the real-time impacts of COVID-19 are in development. These will include new topics and repeat topics from previous cycles to measure changes over time. People who took part in the first Household Impacts of COVID-19 Survey will be asked to respond to the upcoming surveys to continue to build on the findings.

This publication forms part of a suite of additional products that the ABS is producing to measure the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Australian economy and society.

For more information refer to the Measuring the impacts of COVID-19 update.

The panel for the survey originally comprised 1,180 private dwellings. The panel was sourced from a sample of approximately 3,000 households who had completed an on-line or telephone interview in late February/early March 2020. The interview collected information about basic demographic characteristics of people living in the household. Primarily, the person (aged 18 years or over) who completed those household details became the person selected for the survey. Their participation in the survey was voluntary and respondents could opt out at any point.

Of the 1,180 dwellings selected in the first survey, there were 22 dwellings identified as sample loss, leaving 1,158 dwellings. Of these, 1,059 individuals adequately completed the first questionnaire, achieving an overall panel response rate of 91.5%. This defined the longitudinal panel for the remainder of the upcoming surveys. For this seventh survey, 990 individuals adequately completed the survey which is an 85.5% response rate from the original 1,158 panel. As with each subsequent survey, there were a small number of individuals identified as full refusals or sample loss, who will not be contacted for future cycles of the survey. There are now 74 full refusals in total across the seven cycles.

Although the panel selection methodology was not strictly a random sample, the coverage of selections included all Australian geographies (excluding very remote locations) to ensure national estimates could be produced.

Furthermore, this panel data was weight adjusted using the ABS Estimated Residential Population (ERP) as at the end of March 2020. Benchmarks comprised of Age, Sex, and Geographic variables. In addition, adjustments were made based on the number of persons living in the household and the education level of the selected person.

Due to the changes in non-responding households across the survey cycles, each survey sample is re-weighted in order to maintain consistent full population estimates across the surveys.

Telephone interviews were conducted with one randomly selected person aged 18 years and over who was a usual resident of the selected household.

Information was collected electronically by specially trained ABS interviewers using a Computer Assisted Interview (CAI) instrument.

The topics covered in the seventh Household Impacts of COVID-19 Survey include:

• personal and household stressors
• feelings of emotional and mental wellbeing
• lifestyle changes
• precautions taken due to COVID-19
• use of Telehealth services
• likelihood of seeking health care or advice for respiratory infections
• extent of disruption to services for people with a disability
• whether people intend to move in the next year
• job status.
   

For a full list of data items collected, refer to the Data Item List available for download from the Data downloads section.

The survey collected information from respondents about whether they or other persons in their household had experienced housing or other financial stressors. Respondents were asked simple questions about their experiences, rather than calculations of economic stress based on financial and housing costs data captured in the ABS Survey of Income and Housing (see Survey of Income and Housing, User Guide (cat.no. 6553.0)).

Information on emotional and mental wellbeing was collected using questions from the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale - 6 (K6). Respondents were asked how often in the last four weeks they had felt:

• nervous
• hopeless
• restless or fidgety
• that everything was an effort
• so depressed that nothing could cheer them up
• worthless.
   

A five-level response scale was used to assess how frequently a respondent experienced each particular feeling. The response options were:

• none of the time
• a little of the time
• some of the time
• most of the time
• all of the time.
   

Respondents who answered 'A little of the time', 'Some of the time', 'Most of the time' or 'All of the time' to any feeling were then asked whether they had discussed their feelings with a doctor or other health professional in the last four weeks.

The survey asked respondents if they had used a Telehealth service to access health professionals in the last four weeks.

A Telehealth service refers to any health service delivered via telephone, video conferencing, or other communication technology.

Examples of health professionals include a general practitioner (GP), nurse, psychiatrist, psychologist, physiotherapist, dietician, audiologist, and diabetes educator.

The data was designed to provide a snapshot of the changes being experienced by Australians due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The health service use questions are not comparable to the ABS 2018-19 Patient Experience Survey (see: Patient Experiences in Australia: Summary of Findings, 2018–19 (cat. no.4839.0)).

Information on Disability was collected using a simplified question to determine whether any person in the household had disability, and of those identified as having disability, whether they or anyone in the household experienced any disruptions to regular disability support services usually provided through formal service providers since 1 March 2020.

This question was not designed to determine the prevalence of disability, and is in no way comparable to disability prevalence rates collected in other surveys. Information on disability prevalence is captured in the ABS Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers (see Disability, Ageing and Carers, Australia: Summary of Findings (cat. no. 4430.0)).

The survey collected information about the current job status of all respondents, and changes to their job situation in the two weeks prior to survey. The survey was designed to provide a snapshot of the changes being experienced by Australians due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Respondents were asked simple questions about changes to their job situation, rather than the full suite of employment-related questions included in the ABS' Labour Force Survey (see Questionnaires Used in the Labour Force Survey (cat. no. 6232.0)). The results of this survey are, therefore, not directly comparable to Australia’s official labour force measures.

For more information about measuring the labour market impacts of COVID-19 please see the educational piece Measuring the Labour Market impacts of COVID-19.

Margin of Error (MoE) describes the distance from the population value that the sample estimate is likely to be within, and is specified at a given level of confidence. MoEs presented in this publication are at the 95% confidence level. This means that there are 19 chances in 20 that the estimate will differ by less than the specified MoE from the population value (the figure obtained if all in-scope dwellings had been enumerated).

The Data Cubes, containing all tables for this publication in Excel spreadsheet format, are available from the Data downloads section. The spreadsheets present tables of proportions and their corresponding MoE.

The Census and Statistics Act 1905 provides the authority for the ABS to collect statistical information, and requires that statistical output shall not be published or disseminated in a manner that is likely to enable the identification of a particular person or organisation. This requirement means that the ABS must take care and make assurances that any statistical information about individual respondents cannot be derived from published data.

The ABS would like to thank all participants for their involvement in the survey. The information collected is critical to informing the government response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia.

ABS surveys draw extensively on information provided by individuals, businesses, governments and other organisations. Their continued cooperation is very much appreciated and without it, the wide range of statistics published by the ABS would not be available. Information received by the ABS is treated in strict confidence as required by the Census and Statistics Act 1905.

The ABS Privacy Policy outlines how the ABS will handle any personal information that you provide to the ABS.