Data sources
This report was brought together using information from multiple data sources. The key data sources were:
- Department of Defence personnel data which was used to identify veterans who have served since 1 January 1985
- Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) client data and DVA National Treatment Account data which was used to identify whether people were non-DVA clients or earlier DVA clients
- the National Death Index (NDI) which was used to identify people who have died by suicide
- Person Level Integrated Data Asset (PLIDA) which combines multiple data sources with information on health, education, government payments, income and taxation, employment, and population demographics (including the Census of Population and Housing).
Department of Defence personnel data
The Department of Defence personnel data consists of an extract from current and historical personnel systems for ADF members who have served since 1 January 1985. This combines Personnel Management Key Solution (PMKeyS), Core HR system, D1, CENRESPAY (for reservists), ADFPAY (for permanent members) and other historical payment systems. Validation of the data extract has been performed with other data sources.
In addition to identifying persons who have served, the data also includes information on service characteristics. For ex-serving ADF members, service characteristics are reported as at date of separation from the ADF.
DVA client data
The DVA client data was used to identify ex-serving ADF members who were eligible for DVA-funded financial and/or healthcare support, from 1 July 2010 to 30 June 2020. This data is not limited to those who have used DVA services. There have been significant changes to DVA policy over the study period, particularly in increasing access to non-liability mental health care. Since July 2017, all current and ex-serving ADF members have been entitled to non-liability health care (care unrelated to ADF service) for all mental health conditions and are considered DVA clients from first use of these services.
DVA National Treatment Account
The National Treatment Account is an administrative data set containing records of DVA-funded health services provided to eligible DVA clients. This includes data for admitted patient care provided in public and private hospitals and for non-admitted emergency department care from 1 July 2010 to 30 June 2020. This also includes other DVA-funded health services such as primary health care and diagnostic tests.
National Death Index
The NDI is managed by AIHW and contains person-level records of all deaths in Australia obtained from the Registrars of Births, Deaths and Marriage in each state and territory. NDI use is confined to data linkage studies approved by the AIHW Ethics Committee for health and medical research. NDI records are supplemented with cause of death information from the National Mortality Database.
The data quality statement for the NDI can be found at National Death Index (NDI), Data Quality Statement.
PLIDA
PLIDA is a data asset which combines multiple data sources with information on health, education, government payments, income and taxation, employment, and population demographics. The main data source used in PLIDA was the Census of Population and Housing, linked with the other data sources.
Census of Population and Housing
The Census of Population and Housing is administrated by the Australian Bureau of Statistics to provide a snapshot of Australia. It collected data on the key characteristics of people in Australia on Census night and the dwellings in which they live every five years. The Census data in this analysis was collected on 10 August 2021. For this report, the 2021 Census of Population and Housing data was linked with Defence personnel data to create the linked data set.
Other data sources
This report has also included analysis of earlier research on veterans from other data sources including prevalence of chronic conditions (using prescription information and hospital data), social connectedness and homelessness services. While no further analysis was conducted using these data sources, they could be reused to examine non-DVA clients in the future.
Future data sources
While this report has focused on the data sources described above, there are also other data sources that could be used to explore non-DVA clients. Most data sources are only able to provide information on non-DVA clients when linked with DVA client and Defence personnel data. However, some do directly collect this information within the data collection. The data sources are outlined in Table 2.
Data source | Data themes | Method to identify veterans | Method to identify non-DVA clients |
|---|---|---|---|
Census of Population and Housing, 2021 | Demographics such as age, sex, location Socio-economic information e.g. income, employment Long-term health conditions | Self-identification or linkage with Defence personnel data | Linkage with DVA client data |
National Death Index | Causes of death | Linkage with Defence personnel data | Linkage with DVA client data |
Medicare Benefits Schedule | Primary health care and diagnostic health services | Linkage with Defence personnel data | Linkage with DVA client data |
Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme | Medication supply and dispensation | Linkage with Defence personnel data | Linkage with DVA client data |
National Hospital Morbidity Database | Hospital admitted care services | Linkage with Defence personnel data | Linkage with DVA client data |
National on-admitted patient emergency department care database | Emergency department services | Linkage with Defence personnel data | Linkage with DVA client data |
Specialist Homelessness Services Collection | Homelessness services | Self-identification or linkage with Defence personnel data | Self-identification or linkage with DVA client data |
National Health Survey, 2020–21 | Long-term health conditions and health risk factors | Self-identification or linkage with Defence personnel data | Self-identification or linkage with DVA client data |
National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing, 2020–22 | Selected mental disorders, level of impairment, health services used, suicidality and self-harm behaviours | Self-identification or linkage with Defence personnel data | Self-identification or linkage with DVA client data |
Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers, 2022 | Care for everyday activities, quality and accessibility of support services | Self-identification or linkage with Defence personnel data | Linkage with DVA client data |
Survey of Income and Housing, 2019–20 | Sources of income, housing, household characteristics | Self-identification or linkage with Defence personnel data | Linkage with DVA client data |
Survey of Housing, Income and Labour Dynamics, 2021 | Income, labour, family dynamics and personal wellbeing | Self-identification or linkage with Defence personnel data | Linkage with DVA client data |
Note: some data sources also collect information on DVA cardholder status, but this is inadequate to determine non-DVA client status consistent with AIHW’s previous research.
Data integration conducted previously by AIHW has used the Defence personnel data as the spine to identify veterans as the research cohort. DVA client and health service information is then linked to this spine. This limits DVA clients to persons who served since 1985.
However, where there is interest in analysing veterans who served prior to 1985 or DVA clients who are partners or children there would be benefit in producing a hybrid spine that includes both the Defence personnel data and DVA client data. To improve useability of this spine the DVA data should include DVA sourced information on whether the client is a veteran or partner/dependant.
The result would be a spine which has information on all veterans who served since 1985 and DVA clients who served prior to this date. This data would also include information on partners and children of veterans who are DVA clients.
Some use cases of this hybrid spine are that it could be linked with the Census information to provide insights on DVA clients and non-DVA clients who served prior to 1985. It could also be linked with the Census to provide information on families of veterans by DVA client status.