National best practice guidelines for collecting Indigenous status in health data sets

Full publication

• National best practice guidelines for collecting Indigenous status in health data sets (477KB PDF)_1,2,3,4
• National best practice guidelines for collecting Indigenous status in health data sets (633KB RTF)_1,2,3

Publication table of contents

• Preliminary material
  • Title and verso pages
  • Contents
  • Acknowledgments
  • Summary
    • The development of the best practice guidelines
    • Other recommendations
• Body section
  • Introduction
    • The collection of Indigenous status
    • The development of the best practice guidelines
    • Structure of this report
  • Best practice guidelines
    • Part A: Asking the question
    • Part B: Recording responses
    • Part C: Putting the guidelines into practice
  • Recommendations to support the best practice guidelines
    • Recommendations for staff training
    • Recommendations for data quality assurance and validation
  • Promoting the best practice guidelines
    • Dissemination and ongoing support
    • Evaluation
    • Further research
• End matter
• References
• Appendixes
• Appendix A: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander identification in national health data collections (249KB PDF), (254KB RTF)
• Appendix B: An overview of the under-identification of Indigenous Australians in administrative data collections (135KB PDF), (234KB RTF)
• Appendix C: The five stages of the Best Practice Guidelines project (87KB PDF), (168KB RTF)
• Appendix D: Report on the flow of Indigenous status information in six health data sets (234KB PDF) (without data forms), (with data forms (4.8MB PDF zipped)), (666KB RTF)
• Perinatal data
• Birth registration
• Bettering the Evaluation and Care of Health (BEACH) survey of general practice
• Medicare Australia/Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme
• National Hospital Morbidity Database
• National Morbidity Database
• Other information
• Data collection forms
1. Example of perinatal state/territory data collection form: New South Wales midwives data collection form (201KB PDF)
2. Example of state/territory birth registration form: Queensland birth registration application form (1.1MB PDF)
3. Bettering Evaluation and Care of Health (BEACH) national morbidity and treatment survey form (for general practitioners) (235KB PDF)
4. Medicare application form (2.1MB PDF)
5. Medicare copy/transfer application form (1.2MB PDF)
6. Example of state/territory mortality data forms: Queensland death registration application form (1.4MB PDF)
7. Queensland burial notice and cremation notice forms (562KB PDF)
8. Queensland cause of death certificate (and perinatal supplement) form (1.6MB PDF)
9. Queensland autopsy certificate form (264KB PDF)

Notes and corrections

The current version of the publication is presented in the publication tab. Previous versions of files that have been updated or corrected are presented below.

1. (23 August 2010) The Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Services NMDS was included in the original publication (pg5) in error, as a hospital-based national data collection to which these guidelines apply. While these guidelines may be relevant to data collection practices in alcohol and other drug treatment services, the AODTS NMDS is not a hospital-based data collection. 
   •  Previous version - National best practice guidelines for collecting Indigenous status in health data sets (682KB PDF)
2. (8 February 2011) Minor text error corrected on page 22 of report.
• Previous version - National best practice guidelines for collecting Indigenous status in health data sets (477KB PDF)  
3. (19 June 2012) Minor change to table on page 10, relating to coding responses to the Indigenous status question.
   The response where ‘No is ticked and either or both Yes, Aboriginal, and Yes, Torres Strait Islander are ticked’ has been amended to coding category 9: ‘Not stated/inadequately described’.
   • Previous version -  National best practice guidelines for collecting Indigenous status in health data sets (1.2MB PDF)
4. (16 May 2013) Minor changes are to the AIHW link on p. iii & p6 and removing a footnote on p.5. 
   Previous version - National best practice guidelines for collecting Indigenous status in health data sets (PDF)