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Health Statistics New South Wales

Definitions

Glossary

Abbreviations

Glossary

Admission

The formal process, using registration procedures, under which a person is accepted by a hospital or an area or district health service facility as an inpatient.

Aetiologic fraction

A measure of the amount of disease associated with an exposure within a population. In a situation in which exposure to a given factor is believed to be a cause of a given disease, the population attributable fraction (or population aetiologic fraction) is the proportion of the disease in the total population that can be attributed to exposure to the factor.

Age-adjusted rate

Rate adjusted to take account of differences in age composition when rates for different populations are compared.

Age-specific rate

Rate for a specified age group. Both numerator and denominator refer to the same age group.

Ambulance attendance

A response by the ambulance staff to a particular request for provision of care. Attendances are classified in several categories such as: cardiac, medical, surgical, trauma and routine attendance. Ambulance services mean services relating to the work of rendering first aid to, and the transport of, sick and injured persons.

Ambulatory care sensitive conditions

Those for which hospitalisation is considered potentially avoidable through preventive care and early disease management, usually delivered through primary health care.

Associated cause of death

See UNDERLYING cause of death.

Contact

A person who has been in association with an infected person or a contaminated environment that may provide an opportunity to acquire the infection.

Confidence interval

The computed interval with a given probability (for example, 95 per cent) that the true value of a variable such as a rate, mean or proportion, is contained within the interval.

Crude death rate

An estimate of the proportion of a population that dies in a specified period. It is calculated by dividing the number of deaths in a specified period by the number at risk during that period (typically per year).

Day-only admission

A person who is admitted to hospital and leaves on the same calendar day.

Divisions of General Practice

A division of general practice is a group of general practitioners who work together to improve health outcomes at the local level. Geographical boundaries of divisions are formalised by the federal Department of Health and Ageing.

Employed persons

All civilians aged 15 years and over who worked for pay or profit or worked without pay in a family business or farm.

Fertility rate

Number of live births in an area during a year divided by the mid-year female population aged 15-44 in the same area in the same year.

Fetal death

Delivery of a child who did not, at any time after delivery, breathe or show any other evidence of life, such as a heartbeat.

Hospital separation or Hospitalisation

see SEPARATION

Illicit drugs

The following drugs used for non-medicinal purposes: speed, cocaine, sleeping pills or tranquilisers, marijuana, analgesics, heroin, petrol sniffing, other inhalants, hallucinogens, designer drugs, and injecting of any illegal drug.

Incidence

The rate at which new cases of a disorder occur in the population: that is, the number of new cases in a specified period, divided by the population at risk of the disorder in that period.

Infant death

The death of a child before its first birthday.

Labour force

All persons aged 15 years and over who are employed and unemployed.

Life expectancy

The average number of years of life remaining to a person at a particular age.

Live birth

The birth of a child who after delivery, breathes or shows any other evidence of life, such as heartbeat. For calculation of perinatal death rates, includes only infants weighing at least 400 grams at birth or, where birth-weight is unknown, of at least 20 weeks gestation.

Local Government Area

A geographical area under the responsibility of an incorporated local government council.

Local Health Districts

Health administration structure applicable in NSW since January 2011.

Neonatal death

Death within 28 days of birth of any child who after delivery, breathed or showed any other evidence of life, such as a heartbeat.

Notification

Certification in an approved form of a disease listed in the Schedule 3 of Notifiable Diseases of the NSW Public Health Act 1991. In this report, notifications concern cases of communicable diseases reported by general practitioners, hospitals and pathology laboratories to the Director General of the NSW Ministry of Health.

Participation rate

The labour force expressed as a percentage of the civilian population aged 15 years and over.

Patient presentation at emergency department

Occurs following the arrival of the patient at the emergency department and is the earliest occasion of the patient being registered clerically or triaged. The patient may be subsequently provided with a service by a treating medical officer or nurse, and a provisional diagnosis is recorded. A 'presentation' is equal to a 'visit' or an 'attendance' at the emergency department.

Perinatal death

A fetal or neonatal death.

Potentially avoidable deaths

Deaths occurring before the age 75 years, which could be avoided by prevention or clinical interventions.

Potentially preventable hospitalisations

See Ambulatory care sensitive conditions

Prevalence

The number of people with a disease at a given time (point prevalence) or in a specified period (period prevalence), divided by the number of people at risk from that disease.

Principal diagnosis

The first ICD-9 or ICD-10 coding variable reported on the hospital separation form. It means the final diagnosis that best accounts for inpatient care.

Rate ratio

The ratio of two rates: for example, the rate of disease in one population group divided by the rate in another population group.

Scheduled medical condition

Medical conditions to be notified under the provisions of the NSW Public Health Act 1991.

Separation

The formal process whereby an inpatient leaves a hospital or other area health service facility after completing an episode of care. For example, a discharge to home, discharge to another hospital or nursing home, or death.

Standardised rate

see AGE-ADJUSTED RATE

Underlying cause of death

The primary disease or injury causing the death. It is listed on a death certificate together with other diseases or injuries, which are classified as associated causes. These are all other conditions, diseases or injuries that were considered to have contributed to the death.

Unemployed

Persons aged 15 years and over who were not employed and who were actively seeking work, or waiting to be called back to a job from which they had been stood down.

Unemployment rate

The number of unemployed expressed as a percentage of the labour force (that is, employed and unemployed).

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Abbreviations

ABS Australian Bureau of Statistics

ACAM Australian Centre for Asthma Monitoring

ACIR Australian Childhood Immunisation Register

ACS Ambulatory care sensitive conditions

AGPS Australian Government Printing Service

AHR Airway hyper-responsiveness

AHS NSW Area Health Service or health area

AHTAC Australian Health Technology Advisory Committee

AIDS Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome

AIHW Australian Institute of Health and Welfare

APDC NSW Admitted Patient Data Collection, previously called Inpatients Statistics Collection

ARIA Accessibility/Remoteness Index for Australia-plus

ARMCANZ Agricultural and Resource Management Council of Australia and New Zealand

ASGC Australian Standard Geographical Classification

ASHR Australian Study of Health and Relationships

BFv Barmah Forest virus

BMI Body mass index

BSP Back-scattering coefficient for particles

CAT I Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing

CABG Coronary artery bypass graft

CI Confidence interval

COB Country of birth

COPD Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

DALY Disability-adjusted life years

DEC Department of Environment and Conservation

dmft The number of deciduous (infant) teeth which are decayed, missing or have been filled due to caries (that is, tooth decay)

DMFT The number of permanent (adult) teeth which are decayed, missing or have been filled due to caries (that is, tooth decay)

DTP Diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis combined vaccine (also called triple antigen vaccine)

ED Emergency Department

ERP Estimated resident population

ESRD End-stage renal disease

F Female

HARP Health and Air Research Program

HIV Human immunodeficiency virus

HOIST Health Outcomes Information Statistical Toolkit

ICD-9 International Classification of Diseases,9th revision

ICD-9-CM International Classification of Diseases, 9th revision, Clinical Modification

ICD-10 International Classification of Diseases,10th revision

ICD-10-AM International Classification of Diseases,10th revision, Australian Modification

ICD-O-2 International Classification of Diseases for Oncology, second revision

ICD-O-3 International Classification of Diseases for Oncology, third revision

IRMRC NSW Injury Risk Management Research Centre

IRSD Index of relative socioeconomic disadvantage (a SEIFA index)

ISC NSW Inpatients Statistics Collection or Admitted Patient Data Collection

LGA Local Government Area

LL 95% CI Lower limit of 95% confidence interval for rate

M Male

microg/dL Micrograms per decilitre

mg/L Milligrams per litre

MMR Measles-mumps-rubella combined vaccine

NAC National Asthma Campaign

NATSEM National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling

NDD Notifiable Diseases Database (see Methods section)

NHS Australian Bureau of Statistics National Health Survey

NEPC National Environment Protection Council

NHMRC National Health and Medical Research Council

No. Number

NO2 Nitrogen dioxide

NSW New South Wales

NSWPHS New South Wales Population Health Survey

OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

PM10 Particulate matter <10 microns in diameter

PM2.5 Particulate matter <10 microns in diameter

ppm parts per million

RPI Regional pollutant index

RRv Ross River virus

SEIFA Australian Bureau of Statistics Socio-Economic Indices for Areas

SES Socio-Economic status

SLA Statistical Local Area

SIDS Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

STIs Sexually transmissible infections

Type 1 Diabetes Insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus

Type 2 Diabetes Non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus

UL 95% CI Upper limit of 95% confidence interval for rate

UVR Ultraviolet radiation

WHO World Health Organization

YLD Years of healthy life lost due to disability

YLL Years of life lost

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