National Indigenous Reform Agreement: PI 02—Mortality rate by leading causes, 2015, Quality Statement
Data Quality Statement Attributes
Identifying and definitional attributes | |
Metadata item type: | Data Quality Statement |
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METEOR identifier: | 593415 |
Registration status: | Indigenous, Superseded 07/02/2017 |
Data quality | |
Institutional environment: | The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) deaths data collections are conducted under the Census and Statistics Act 1905. For information on the institutional environment of the ABS, including the legislative obligations of the ABS, financing and governance arrangements, and mechanisms for scrutiny of ABS operations, see ABS Institutional Environment. |
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Timeliness: | Deaths and causes of death data are published on an annual basis. Death records are provided electronically to the ABS by individual Registrars of Births, Deaths and Marriages on a monthly basis for compilation into aggregate statistics on a quarterly and annual basis. One dimension of timeliness in death registrations data is the interval between the occurrence and registration of a death. As a result, a small number of deaths occurring in one year are not registered until the following year or later.
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Accessibility: | Causes of death data are available in a variety of formats on the ABS website under the 3303.0 product family. Deaths data are available in a variety of formats on the ABS website under the 3302.0 product family. ERP and Estimated Indigenous Population data is available in a variety of formats on the ABS website under the 3101.0 and 3238.0 product families. Further information on deaths and mortality may be available on request. The ABS observes strict confidentiality protocols as required by the Census and Statistics Act1905. This may restrict access to data at a very detailed level. Data for this indicator are published annually in the National Indigenous Reform Agreement information reports (which are available on the Productivity Commission website). |
Interpretability: | Data for this indicator have been age-standardised, using the direct method, to 75 years and over, to account for differences between the age structures of the Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations. Direct age-standardisation to the 2001 total Australian population was used (see Data Cube: Standard Population for Use in Age-Standardisation Table in Australian Demographic Statistics, Dec 2013, ABS cat. no. 3101.0). Age-standardised results provide a measure of relative difference only between populations. Information on how to interpret and use the data appropriately is available from Explanatory Notes in Causes of Death, Australia (3303.0). |
Relevance: | The ABS Deaths and Causes of Death collections include all deaths that occurred and were registered in Australia, including deaths of persons whose usual residence is overseas. Deaths of Australian residents that occurred outside Australia may be registered by individual Registrars, but are not included in ABS deaths or causes of death statistics. Data in the Causes of Death collection include demographic items, as well as causes of death information, which is coded according to the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD). ICD is the international standard classification for epidemiological purposes and is designed to promote international comparability in the collection, processing, classification, and presentation of causes of death statistics. The classification is used to classify diseases and causes of disease or injury as recorded on many types of medical records as well as death records The ICD has been revised periodically to incorporate changes in the medical field. The 10th revision of ICD (ICD-10) has been used by the ABS to code cause of death since 1997. For further information on the ABS Deaths and Causes of Death collections, see the relevant Data Quality Statement. |
Accuracy: | Information on deaths and causes of death is obtained from a complete enumeration of deaths registered during a specified period and are not subject to sampling error. However, deaths and causes of death data sources are subject to non-sampling error which can arise from inaccuracies in collecting, recording and processing the data. It is likely that some deaths of Indigenous people are not accurately identified as Indigenous deaths. Information about the deceased is supplied by a relative or other person acquainted with the deceased, or by an official of the institution where the death occurred and may differ from the self-identified Indigenous origin of the deceased. Forms are often not subject to the same best practice design principles as statistical questionnaires, and respondent and/or interviewer understanding is rarely tested. Over-precise analysis of Indigenous deaths and mortality should be avoided. In November 2010, the Queensland Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages advised the ABS of an outstanding deaths registration initiative undertaken by the Registry. This initiative resulted in the November 2010 registration of 374 previously unregistered deaths which occurred between 1992 and 2006 (including a few for which a date of death was unknown). Of these, around three-quarters (284) were deaths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. The ABS discussed different methods of adjustment of Queensland death registrations data for 2010 with key stakeholders. Following the discussion, a decision was made by the ABS and key stakeholders to use an adjustment method that added together deaths registered in 2010 for usual residents of Queensland which occurred in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. This method minimises the impact on mortality indicators used in various government reports. However, care should still be taken when interpreting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander death data for Queensland for 2010. Note that there are differences between data output in the Causes of Death, Australia, 2010 publication (ABS cat. no. 3303.0) and 2010 data reported for the Council Of Australian Governments (COAG), as this adjustment was not applied in the publication. For further details see Technical Note: Registration of outstanding deaths,Queensland 2010, from the Deaths, Australia, 2010 publication (ABS cat. no. 3302.0) and Explanatory Note 103 in the Causes of Death, Australia, 2010 publication (ABS cat. no. 3303.0). Investigation conducted by the Western Australian Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages indicated that some deaths of non-Indigenous people were wrongly recorded as deaths of Indigenous people in Western Australia for 2007, 2008 and 2009. The ABS discussed this issue with a range of key stakeholders and users of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths statistics. Following this discussion, the ABS did not release Western Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths data for the years 2007, 2008 and 2009 in the 2010 issue of the Deaths, Australia publication, or in the 2011 COAG data supply. The Western Australian Registry corrected the data and resupplied the corrected data to the ABS. These corrected data were then released by the ABS in spreadsheets attached to Deaths, Australia, 2010 (ABS cat. no. 3302.0) publication on 24 May 2012, and are included in this round of COAG reporting. In addition, 3 deaths in Western Australia for 2009 which were wrongly coded as deaths of Indigenous people have been corrected as deaths of non-Indigenous people in this round of COAG reporting. Causes of death statistics are released with a view to ensuring that they are fit for purpose when released. Supporting documentation for causes of death statistics are published and should be considered when interpreting the data to enable the user to make informed decisions on the relevance and accuracy of the data for the purpose the user is going to use those statistics. To meet user requirements for timely data it is often necessary to obtain information from the administrative source before all information for the reference period is available (for example, finalisation of coronial proceedings). A balance needs to be maintained between accuracy (completeness) of data and timeliness, taking account of the different needs of users. For further information, see Technical Note: Causes of Death Revisions 2009 and 2010 in Causes of Death, Australia, 2011 (ABS cat.no. 3303.0).
Non-Indigenous data from the Deaths and Causes of Death collections do not include death registrations with a ‘not stated’ Indigenous status. Some rates are unreliable due to small numbers of deaths over the reference period. Resultant rates could be misleading. Age-standardised death rates based on a very low death count have been deemed unpublishable. Some cells have also not been published to prevent back-calculation of these suppressed cells. Caution should be used when interpreting rates for this indicator. |
Coherence: | The methods used to construct the indicator are consistent and comparable with other collections and with international practice. |
Relational attributes | |
Related metadata references: | Supersedes National Indigenous Reform Agreement: PI 02-Mortality rate by leading causes, 2014 QS Indigenous, Superseded 17/02/2016 Has been superseded by National Indigenous Reform Agreement: PI 02-Mortality rate by leading causes, 2015-16; Quality Statement Indigenous, Superseded 07/02/2018 |
Indicators linked to this Data Quality statement: | National Indigenous Reform Agreement: PI 02-Mortality rate by leading causes, 2015 Indigenous, Superseded 18/11/2015 |