Technical notes
Disease expenditure database
The main source of information for this report is the AIHW’s Disease Expenditure Database. It contains estimates of spending by Australian Burden of Disease Study condition, age group, and sex for admitted patient, emergency department, and outpatient hospital services, out-of-hospital medical services, and prescription pharmaceuticals.
The methods used for estimating disease spending is a mixture of ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ approaches, where total spending across the health system is estimated and then allocated to the relevant conditions based on the available service use data.
Although this approach produces consistency, good coverage and totals that add up to known expenditure, it is not as comprehensive for any specific disease as a detailed ‘bottom-up’ analysis, which would include the actual costs incurred for that disease. A lack of amenable data sources means that a more granular ‘bottom-up’ analysis is not possible.
Estimates in the Disease Expenditure Database have been derived by combining information from the:
- National Hospital Morbidity Database (NHMD)
- National Public Hospitals Establishments Database (NPHED)
- National Non-admitted Patient Emergency Department Care Database (NNAPEDC)
- National Non-admitted Patient Databases (aggregate, NAPAGG, and unit record, NAPUR)
- National Hospital Costs Data Collection (NHCDC)
- Private Hospital Data Bureau (PHDB) collection
- Bettering the Evaluation and Care of Health (BEACH) survey
- Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS)
- Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS)
- Health Expenditure Database.
It is not technically appropriate or feasible to allocate all spending on health goods and services by disease. For example, neither administration expenditure nor capital expenditure can be meaningfully attributed to any particular condition due to their nature. For the purposes of this report, $136 billion, or 73% of recurrent spending, was attributed to specific diseases and injuries. This expenditure includes payments from all sources of funds, such as the Australian and State and Territory Governments, Private Health Insurance, and out of pocket payments by patients.
Some components of recurrent expenditure are allocated differently between the health expenditure Australia database, and the disease expenditure study. This approach was taken to reflect patterns of healthcare use for particular conditions, which is the focus of this body of work, rather than health funding arrangements. Spending estimates in hospitals are slightly higher than in the Health Expenditure Database, while spending on referred medical services are lower. Further details of methods used are described in the Disease Expenditure 2018–19 Study: Overview of analysis and methodology report.
Sport and physical recreation participation data
AusPlay data is collected by Engine on behalf of Sport Australia. Australian residents are randomly selected using their mobile phone number and interviewed via a computer assisted telephone interview (CATI). The target sample size is 20,000 people aged 15 years and over. The survey period for the 2019–20 data is 1 July 2019 to 30 June 2020.
The sample data is projected to population estimates using a common post-stratified weighting (scaling) method. As the survey estimates are based on a sample, rather than the full population, they will have sample error. One measure of the sample error is the relative margin of error (RMOE). Survey estimates with a RMOE between 50% and 100% should be used with caution. Survey estimates with a RMOE greater than 100% are considered too unreliable to use.
AusPlay survey respondents answer questions about their participation in sports and physical recreation in the 12 months prior to interview. A respondent needs only to have participated once in the previous 12 months to be counted as a participant. The survey does not distinguish between organised sports and recreational participation. Thus, for example, a participant in soccer may have played consistently in an organised competition over a six- month period or may have played soccer recreationally at a park with friends: both are treated equally as soccer participants.
Sport participant reporting categories
Table 1 describes the AusPlay to ICD-10-AM code mapping used for this report.
Roller sports | ||
|---|---|---|
Cycling | ||
Wheeled motor sports | ||
Adventure and extreme sports | ||
Equestrian activities | ||
Combative sports | ||
Golf | ||
Target and precision | ||
Racquet sports | ||
Dancing | ||
Recreational walking | ||
Running, athletics and track & field | ||
Fitness and gym | ||
Skiing, ice skating & snowboarding | ||
Water skiing | ||
Surfing | ||
Fishing | ||
Swimming and diving | ||
Boating sports | ||
Hockey | ||
Cricket | ||
Other team bat or stick sports | ||
Netball | ||
Other team ball sports | ||
Basketball | ||
Other & unspecified football | ||
Touch football | ||
Soccer | ||
Rugby | ||
Australian Rules Football |
| Reporting category | ICD-10-AM code | AusPlay categories |
|---|---|---|
| U50.00 Australian Rules | Australian football |
| U50.01 Rugby Union | Rugby union |
| U50.02 Rugby League | Rugby league |
| U50.03 Rugby, unspecified |
|
| U50.04 Soccer | Football/soccer |
| U50.05 Touch football | Touch football |
| U50.08 Other specified football | Gridiron Gaelic football |
| U50.09 Football, unspecified |
|
| U50.1 Basketball | Basketball |
| U50.2 Handball, team | Handball |
| U50.4 Korfball | Korfball |
| U50.5 Volleyball | Volleyball (indoor and outdoor) |
| U50.8 Other specified team ball sport | Goalball Sepak takraw |
| U50.9 Unspecified team ball sport |
|
| U50.3 Netball | Netball |
| U51.0 Baseball | Baseball |
| U51.3 Softball | Softball |
| U51.4 T-ball | Tee ball |
| U51.8 Other specified team bat or stick sport | Lacrosse |
| U51.9 Unspecified team bat or stick sport |
|
| U51.1 Cricket | Cricket |
| U51.20 Ice hockey | Ice hockey |
| U51.21 Street and ball hockey |
|
| U51.22 Field hockey | Hockey |
| U51.23 Floor hockey | Floorball |
| U51.28 Other specified hockey | Broomball |
| U51.29 Hockey, unspecified |
|
| U53.0 Canoeing | Canoeing/Kayaking Outrigger canoe |
| U53.1 Jet skiing | Jet skiing |
| U53.2 Kayaking |
|
| U53.3 Power boat racing |
|
| U53.4 Rowing and sculling | Rowing |
| U53.5 Surf boating |
|
| U53.6 Yachting and sailing | Sailing |
| U53.7 Surf skiing |
|
| U53.8 Other specified boating sport | Dragon boat racing Paddle sports |
| U53.9 Unspecified boating sport |
|
| U54.0 Diving | Diving |
| U54.5 Swimming | Swimming |
| U54.1 Fishing | Fishing (recreational) Fishing Sport |
| U54.4 Surfing and boogie boarding | Surfing |
| U54.7 Wind surfing | Kitesurfing/kiteboarding |
| U54.6 Water skiing | Water skiing/Wakeboarding |
| U55.1 Ice skating and ice dancing | Ice skating |
| U55.2 Skiing | Ski & snowboard |
| U55.4 Snow boarding |
|
| U55.5 Speed skating | Ice racing/speed skating |
| U56.0 Aerobics and calisthenics | Calisthenics |
| U62.0 Power lifting | Powerlifting |
| U62.1 Weight lifting | Weight lifting |
| U62.3 Strength training and body building | Body building |
| U62.8 Other specified power sport |
|
| U62.9 Unspecified power sport |
|
| U70.0 Athletic activities involving fitness equipment, not elsewhere classified | CrossFit Fitness/Gym |
| U56.1 Jogging and running | Athletics, track and field (includes jogging and running) |
| U56.3 Track and field |
|
| U56.4 Walking, competitive |
|
| U56.5 Marathon running |
|
| U56.8 Other specified individual athletic activity |
|
| U56.9 Unspecified individual athletic activity |
|
| U56.2 Walking | Walking (Recreational) |
| U58.0 Dancing | DanceSport Dancing (recreational) |
| U59.0 Badminton | Badminton |
| U59.1 Racquetball |
|
| U59.2 Squash | Squash |
| U59.3 Table tennis and ping-pong | Table tennis |
| U59.4 Tennis | Tennis |
| U59.8 Other specified racquet sport |
|
| U59.9 Unspecified racquet sport |
|
| U60.0 Archery | Archery |
| U60.1 Billiards, pool, and snooker | Billiards/Snooker/Pool Eight ball |
| U60.2 Bowling | Bowls Carpet bowls Tenpin bowling |
| U60.3 Croquet | Croquet |
| U60.4 Darts | Darts |
| U60.6 Firearm shooting | Shooting Shooting sports |
| U60.8 Other specified target and precision sport | Bocce/Boules Boccia Petanque |
| U60.9 Unspecified target and precision sports |
|
| U60.5 Golf | Golf |
| U61.0 Aikido |
|
| U61.1 Boxing | Boxing |
| U61.2 Fencing | Fencing |
| U61.3 Martial arts | Judo Jujitsu Karate Kendo Kung fu wushu Martial arts Mixed martial arts Muay Thai Taekwondo |
| U61.4 Wrestling | Wrestling |
| U61.5 Self defence training |
|
| U61.8 Other specified combative sport |
|
| U61.9 Unspecified combative sport |
|
| U63.0 Equestrian events | Equestrian |
| U63.1 Endurance riding |
|
| U63.2 Polo and polocrosse | Polo Polocrosse |
| U63.3 Horse racing events | Horse racing |
| U63.4 Rodeo | Rodeo |
| U63.5 Trail or general horseback riding |
|
| U63.6 Trotting and harness | Harness racing |
| U63.8 Other specified equestrian activity | Campdrafting Pony Club Ready Set Trot |
| U63.9 Unspecified equestrian activity |
|
| U64.0 Abseiling and rappelling | Rock climbing/Abseiling/Caving |
| U64.1 Hiking | Bush walking |
| U64.2 Mountaineering |
|
| U64.3 Orienteering and rogaining | Orienteering Rogaining |
| U64.4 River rafting |
|
| U64.5 White-water rafting |
|
| U64.6 Rock climbing |
|
| U64.7 Bungy jumping |
|
| U64.8 Other specified adventure sport | Sport climbing Adventure racing |
| U64.9 Unspecified adventure sport |
|
| U65.0 Riding an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) |
|
| U65.1 Motorcycling | Motor cycling |
| U65.2 Motor car racing | Motor sport |
| U65.3 Go-carting |
|
| U65.8 Other specified motor sport |
|
| U65.9 Unspecified motor sport |
|
| U66.00 BMX | BMX |
| U66.01 Mountain | Mountain biking |
| U66.02 Road | Cycling |
| U66.03 Track and velodrome |
|
| U66.08 Other specified cycling |
|
| U66.09 Cycling, unspecified |
|
| U66.1 In-line skating and rollerblading | Skate |
| U66.2 Roller skating | Roller Derby |
| U66.3 Skate boarding |
|
| U66.4 Scooter riding | Scootering |