Australian Bureau of Statistics – National Health Survey (NHS)

3–4 yearly

2017–18¹

The NHS is conducted by the ABS and presents key findings for health statistics including long-term health conditions; mental wellbeing; and health risk factors. Participants include usual residents of private dwellings in urban and rural areas of Australia (excluding Very Remote areas).

The NHS uses the ABS Short Disability Module² to identify the presence of disability or a restrictive long-term health condition. Disability or a restrictive long-term health condition is defined as having at least one condition which restricts everyday activities, for at least 6 months.

The NHS identifies six disability groups based on particular types of disability:

• sensory and speech
• intellectual
• physical restriction
• psychosocial
• head injury, stroke or acquired brain injury (ABI)
• other.

People may have more than one type of disability. In reporting by disability groups, people could be counted more than once if they have disabilities from more than one disability group.

The NHS classifies disability according to the degree of limitation or impairment in core activities into profound, severe, moderate, and mild limitation. In addition, NHS distinguishes people with disability who have no limitation in core activities but have schooling or employment restriction, and people with disability who have no specific limitation or restriction. The ADS OF reports on outcomes of people with severe and/or profound disability, as well as outcomes of people with other disability status (people with disability who have disability status other than severe or profound). 

Age refers to the age of a person on their last birthday.

'Male’ and 'Female’ reported.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status is voluntarily self-reported based on the ABS Indigenous Status Standard.³

The NHS collects information on country of birth, main language spoken at home, and (for those who mainly speak a language other than English at home) proficiency in spoken English. This information is used to derive Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) status for reporting against the ADS OF measures.

For the ADS OF reporting purposes, the CALD cohort includes people born in countries other than main English-speaking countries (Australia, New Zealand, the UK, the USA, Canada, Republic of Ireland, and South Africa), and/or those who mainly speak a language other than English at home. People born in main English-speaking countries who mainly speak English at home, and/or those who are nonverbal, mainly use Auslan at home, or mainly speak an Australian Indigenous language at home are included in the non-CALD cohort.

The CALD cohort can be further sub-divided according to proficiency in spoken English. Low English proficiency group includes people who mainly speak a language other than English at home with self-reported proficiency in spoken English of 'not well' or 'not at all'. High English proficiency group includes people who mainly speak a language other than English at home with self-reported proficiency in spoken English of 'well' or 'very well', and those who mainly speak English at home.

Remoteness is classified according to the 2011 Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS). Data source does not cover very remote areas and discrete Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.⁴

National, state and territory data are available.

1. While the 2020–21 NHS data is currently available, the 2020–21 data is considered a break in time series from previous NHS collections and cannot be used for comparisons over time. The survey was collected during the COVID-19 pandemic which significantly changed the data collection, and impacted response rates and sample representativeness for sub-populations.
2. The Short Disability Module used in the NHS to identify the presence of disability has been found to overestimate the number of people with less severe forms of disability (4431.0.55.002 - ABS Sources of Disability Information, 2012 - 2016).
3. The ABS Indigenous Status Standard can be found at Indigenous Status Standard, 2014, Version 1.5 | Australian Bureau of Statistics (abs.gov.au).
4. Further information on the geographic index used by this data source can be found at Remoteness Structure | Australian Bureau of Statistics (abs.gov.au).

• Self-reported health