From 2011 onwards all results from the NSW Population Health Survey are provided through HealthStats NSW.
Previous results for adults and children
Since 1997, the NSW Population Health Survey has been interviewing state residents about their health behaviours, health status, and use of health services, using computer assisted telephone interviewing (CATI). Interviews are carried out continuously between February and December each year. The target population is all state residents from birth upwards.
NSW residents are sampled using Sampleworx Random Digit Dialling, with dual overlapping frames for landlines and mobiles. The landline frame is stratified by health district, using a best-fit for matching postcodes to phone prefix geography, and one adult or one child is selected from each landline contacted. The mobile frame uses valid Sampleworx numbers; one adult is selected from each mobile contacted, and an additional child is selected from parent responders. The final sample is representative of each of the state's 15 Local Health Districts.
Separate questionnaires are administered to adults (aged 16 years and over) and children (aged 0-15 years). If the selected respondent is a child, a parent or carer is selected as a proxy respondent. All questions are field-tested and approved by NSW Health's Population and Health Services Research Ethics Committee prior to use. The survey questionnaires are translated into five languages: Arabic, Chinese, Greek, Italian and Vietnamese.
The survey data are weighted to account for probabilities of selection, as well as post-stratification, to match the final sample to the state population.
There is a wealth of information in the survey that may be of interest to researchers. For this reason, the NSW Ministry of Health encourages further analysis of survey data. Authorised users can access these data through Secure Analytics for Population Health Research and Intelligence (SAPHaRI). Other researchers should lodge a data request with the Chief Health Officer stating the aim of the research and the required variables.
