National data dictionaries

• What is a national data dictionary?
• What is the National Health Data Dictionary?
• What is the National Community Services Data Dictionary?
• What is the format and structure of the national data dictionaries?

What is a national data dictionary?

A list of data items for people involved in constructing and using data collections and information in the Health, Community Services or Housing sectors, and for organisations which have mandatory reporting requirements, and which want to learn from best practice of other organisations. 

A resource for people involved in constructing either survey or administrative data collections and it will help to maximise the consistency and comparability of information about service need, service delivery and service use. 

A reference on standardised, accepted terms and protocols used for data collection in the Health, Community Services and Housing sectors. These terms reflect a vast array of health, community services, housing and research expertise. 

The Data Dictionaries also contains "information annexes", consisting of detailed explanatory notes and references relating to the content of the main parts of each of the Dictionaries.

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What is the National Health Data Dictionary?

The National Health Data Dictionary was first published as the National Minimum Data Set - Institutional Health Care in September 1989. Since the establishment of the first National Health Information Agreement in June 1993 there have been many changes in the development and management of national health information resulting in the expansion of both the scope and content of the subsequent versions of the National Health Data Dictionary. The National Health Information Agreement was renewed in 2004 for a further five-year term. Version 14 of the National Health Data Dictionary is now available. 

Under the National Health Information Agreement and the National Health Information Standards Plan for Australia, the National Health Data Dictionary is the authoritative source of health data definitions used in Australia where national consistency is required. 

The Dictionary is designed to improve the comparability of data across the health field. It is also designed to make data collection activities more efficient by reducing duplication of effort in the field, and more effective by ensuring that information to be collected is appropriate to its purpose. 

The objectives of the National Health Data Dictionary are to: 

• establish a core set of uniform definitions relating to the full range of health services and a range of population parameters (including health status and determinants); 
• promote uniformity, availability, reliability, validity, consistency and completeness in the data;
• accord with nationally and internationally agreed protocols and standards, wherever possible; 
• promote the national standard definitions by being readily available to all individuals and organisations involved in the generation, use and/or development of health and health services information; 
• facilitate and promote the development of good data definitions across the health sector. 

The Health Data Standards Committee is responsible for coordinating the development and revision of the National Health Data Dictionary.

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What is the National Community Services Data Dictionary?

The National Community Services Data Dictionary (NCSDD) is the reference on agreed data definitions and information standards of relevance to the community services sector. In essence, the aim is to provide a common language for the various agencies and governments involved in community services. 

The first version of the NCSDD was published in 1998. Version 5 of the NCSDD is now available, it contains data definitions common to both the NCSDD and the National Health Data Dictionary. It also includes refinement of existing items based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICFG, WHO 2001) and outcomes of a review by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on conformity with ABS standards use for population and household surveys. 

Further work will continue to align data definitions between the community services, health and housing sectors where possible or desirable and to improve access to national data standards for use in national data collections and national minimum data sets. 

The NCSDD is an initiative under the National Community Services Information Agreement (NCSIA ) and all signatories to the Agreement have agreed to use the NCSDD as the authoritative source of information about endorsed metadata for use in data collections in the community services field. The data standards outlined in the Dictionary are compiled by the National Community Services Data Committee (NCSDC) under the auspices of the National Community Services Management Group (NCSIMG). 

The primary role of the NCSDC is to assess data definitions proposed for inclusion in the Dictionary and to make recommendations to the NCSIMG on revisions and additions to each successive version of the Dictionary. In particular, the Committee's role is to ensure that the NCSDD definitions comply with endorsed standards for the definition of data elements. All data definitions to be included in the NCSDD require endorsement by the NCSIMG. The Dictionary is available online in PDF format. 

Subsequent versions of the NCSDD will be produced electronically using the online metadata registry (METeOR). This registry contains all nationally endorsed metadata standards for the health, community services and housing sectors. This is available on the website (http://meteor.aihw.gov.au/).

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What is the format and structure of the national data dictionaries?

All definitions in the national data dictionaries are presented in a standard format based on ISO/IEC International Standard 11179-3:2002 (Information Technology-Metadata Registries-Part 3: Registry metamodel and basic attributes). This is the international standard for defining data elements issued by the International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission. Collectively, the format describes a set of attributes for data definitions. 

The application of this international standard across data dictionaries in the health, housing and community services sectors adds to the completeness, integrity and consistency of data definitions and consequently to the quality and utility of national data. 

Collectively, the format describes a set of attributes for data definitions or 'metadata' standards applicable to each data definition. Metadata is information about the attributes of any man-made concept, construct, resource, physical measurement or attribute. This includes: 

• concepts such as 'service', 'agency', 'service delivery setting', 'Medicare eligibility', 'doctor' 
• constructs such as 'Medicare card', 'hospital', 'emergency department' 
• resources such as 'skills', 'labour force', 'income' 
• measurements such as 'blood pressure', 'height', 'length of stay' 
• social information such as 'name', 'Indigenous status', 'preferred language' 
• demographic information such as 'sex', 'address', 'country of birth';
• management and planning concepts such as 'service recipient', 'service provider', 'expenditure', 'date of service'. 

All of these refer to some sort of data that would be collected or provide assistance in defining data be collected. There are also other types of metadata: 

• actual data collections or sets of data that are recommended for collection where comparability, consistency and quality of the data are important 
• data domain values and codesets that may be common across many sectors 
• classification schemes and terminologies. 

All metadata items in the data dictionaries have a common set of attributes used to define national standards in health, housing assistance and community services. Attributes are divided into three major sections: 

• identifying and definitional attributes 
• relational and representational attributes 
• administrative attributes. 

Not all metadata items in the Data Dictionaries contain information about each of the attributes listed below.

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Last reviewed by in April 2007