BreastScreen Australia data 2020–2021; Quality Statement
Data Quality Statement Attributes
Identifying and definitional attributes | |
Metadata item type: | Data Quality Statement |
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METEOR identifier: | 756291 |
Registration status: | AIHW Data Quality Statements, Superseded 28/04/2023 |
Data quality | |
Data quality statement summary: | Description BreastScreen Australia is Australia’s national, population-based breast cancer screening program that aims to reduce illness and death from breast cancer through an organised approach to the early detection of breast cancer, using screening mammography to detect unsuspected breast cancer in women every 2 years, with data reported on those aged 50–74. BreastScreen Australia is a joint program of the Australian and state and territory governments, with BreastScreen registers in each state and territory recording data collected during a woman’s contact with a BreastScreen service. Data from each BreastScreen program register are supplied annually to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). These data are compiled into the BreastScreen Australia database, held at the AIHW to enable national monitoring of BreastScreen Australia and are reported in the annual BreastScreen Australia monitoring report. Some BreastScreen data are supplied as aggregate data and therefore cannot be interrogated in more detail. The majority of screening mammography performed in Australia is through BreastScreen Australia. However, a relatively small amount of screening mammography occurs through services other than BreastScreen Australia, which are not within the scope of these data. Summary of Key Issues
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Institutional environment: | The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare is an independent corporate Commonwealth entity under the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Act 1987(AIHW Act), governed by a management Board and accountable to the Australian Parliament through the Health portfolio. The AIHW is a nationally recognised information management agency. Its purpose is to create authoritative and accessible information and statistics that inform decisions and improve the health and welfare of all Australians. Compliance with the confidentiality requirements in the AIHW Act, the Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and AIHW’s data governance arrangements ensures that the AIHW is well positioned to release information for public benefit while protecting the identity of individuals and organisations. For further information see the AIHW website www.aihw.gov.au/about-us, which includes details about the AIHW’s governance (www.aihw.gov.au/about-us/our-governance) and vision and strategic goals (www.aihw.gov.au/about-us/our-vision-and-strategic-goals). BreastScreen data are collected by and held in the BreastScreen register within each state and territory, and are managed by state and territory BreastScreen programs. The AIHW has been receiving BreastScreen data from state and territory BreastScreen programs since 1996. |
Timeliness: | BreastScreen data are generally available within 6–12 months (it can take up to 12 months for final pathology results on all breast tissue samples to be received by BreastScreen registers). The BreastScreen Australia database cannot be fully compiled until the final jurisdiction supplies its data. Participation data for the previous calendar year are supplied by July each year. Recall to assessment, invasive breast cancer detection and DCIS detection data for the previous calendar year are supplied July–December each year. Rescreening and sensitivity data lag behind, as the specifications for these require at least 2 years to pass before they can be calculated. The data discussed in this data quality statement cover the period January 2020–December 2021. |
Accessibility: | BreastScreen Australia data are published annually in the BreastScreen Australia monitoring report available on the AIHW website where they can be downloaded without charge. Supplementary data tables presenting data that are more detailed accompany each report and these are also available on the AIHW website where they can be downloaded without charge. General enquiries about AIHW publications can be made to the Digital and Media Communications Unit on (02) 6244 1000 or via email to [email protected]. |
Interpretability: | Details of the 8 BreastScreen Australia performance indicators can be found in the BreastScreen Australia data dictionary: version 1.2. While many concepts in the BreastScreen Australia monitoring report are easy to interpret, other concepts and statistical calculations are more complex. All concepts are explained within the body of the report presenting these data, along with footnotes to provide further details and caveats. The appendixes provide additional detail on the data sources and classifications, and on the statistical methods used. |
Relevance: | Breast cancer screening data are highly relevant for monitoring trends in breast screening participation and the detection of invasive breast cancer and DCIS, as well as other measures of program performance such as recall to assessment rates and sensitivity measures. The data are used for many purposes by policy makers and researchers, but are supplied and analysed specifically to monitor and inform BreastScreen Australia. |
Accuracy: | All data provided by state and territory BreastScreen programs, once analysed, are supplied back for verification. Participants attending a BreastScreen service are able to self-report Indigenous status; this database field is therefore considered to be of high quality. State and territory BreastScreen databases change every day, and not just because new records are added; existing records are changed if new, more precise information becomes available or if typographical errors are discovered by routine data checking procedures. As a result, the number of women participating, as well as DCIS and invasive breast cancer cases reported by the AIHW for any particular year may change slightly over time. Further data published by a jurisdictional BreastScreen program at a certain time may differ slightly from what is published by the AIHW at a different time. Socioeconomic status Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage (IRSD) rankings are calculated by Postal Area (POA) using a population-based method at the Australia-wide level. These ranked socioeconomic status POAs are then allocated to their relevant jurisdiction, meaning quintiles should contain similar socioeconomic groups across jurisdictions. Socioeconomic status IRSD rankings are only measured at the time of the Australian Census of Population and Housing and are not available for approximately 18 months from the Census date. Consequently, socioeconomic status for a geographical area may be up to 6 years old and not an accurate representation of the status of residents at the time the data are analysed. In addition, IRSD is a measure of the average disadvantage of households in an area and the level of disadvantage of an individual household may vary significantly from the average. An Australian Bureau of Statistics POA to remoteness correspondence and a POA to socioeconomic status correspondence are used to allocate persons screened to remoteness and socioeconomic status areas based on their postcode of residence. The remoteness (and socioeconomic status) to POA correspondences are based on postal areas, boundaries and classifications as at the year of the last Australian census, which may have been up to 5 years earlier, and boundaries, socioeconomic status and remoteness regions may have changed over time, creating inaccuracies. New postal areas defined since the last Census will not have valid remoteness or socioeconomic status correspondence data available as they will not exist in earlier correspondences. Correspondences that convert POAs to PHN and Statistical Area geographies are also used. This may lead to some minor inaccuracies in results, as some postcodes cross PHN and Statistical Area geographies. This error tends to be largest in areas where the boundaries of the two geographies do not align, or when mapping from larger to smaller areas. Correspondences rated as 'Poor' quality as determined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics are excluded from reporting. Records that cannot be converted by the correspondences are classified in an 'unknown' category.
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Coherence: | BreastScreen data are reported and published annually by the AIHW. |
Source and reference attributes | |
Submitting organisation: | Australian Institute of Health and Welfare |
Relational attributes | |
Related metadata references: | Supersedes BreastScreen Australia data 2019–2020; Quality Statement AIHW Data Quality Statements, Superseded 08/07/2022 Has been superseded by BreastScreen Australia data 2021–2022; Quality Statement AIHW Data Quality Statements, Standard 28/04/2023 |