Classifications
Australian Statistical Geographical Standard for Remoteness Areas
The Australian Statistical Geographical Standard (ASGS) for Remoteness Areas was developed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) to collect and disseminate geographically classified statistics (ABS 2011; ABS 2016; ABS 2021).
The ASGS’s remoteness structure categorises geographical areas in Australia into five remoteness areas:
- Major cities
- Inner regional
- Outer regional
- Remote
- Very remote.
The ABS website includes detailed information on ASGS, including the key changes made between each edition.
Data on remoteness of geographical location in the National Hospital Morbidity Database (NHMD) are collected based on patients’ usual residential address and in the National Public Hospital Establishments Database (NPHED), this is determined by hospital street address. This release provides hospital data on remoteness using 2021–22 NHMD (ASGS 2016 edition). Further information on the quality of the usual residence of the patient data in the NHMD can be found in National Hospital Morbidity Database (NHMD) Technical appendices/notes 2021–22.
Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage
The Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage (IRSD) is one of four Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) developed by the ABS (ABS 2018). The IRSD represents the socioeconomic position of Australian communities by measuring aspects of disadvantage, such as low income, low educational attainment, high unemployment, and jobs in relatively unskilled occupations. Areas are then ranked according to their level of disadvantage.
When the IRSD is used in this report, people living in the 20% of areas with the greatest overall level of disadvantage are described as living in the ‘lowest socioeconomic areas’. The 20% of people at the other end of the scale – those living in areas with the least overall level of disadvantage – are described as living in the ‘highest socioeconomic areas’.
It is important to note that the IRSD reflects the overall or average socioeconomic position of the population of an area; it does not show how individuals living in the same area might differ from each other in their socioeconomic position.
International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems
The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD), which was developed by the World Health Organization (WHO), is the international standard for coding morbidity and mortality statistics. It was designed to promote international comparability in collecting, processing, classifying and presenting these statistics. The ICD is periodically reviewed to reflect changes in clinical and research settings (WHO 2022).
The version currently used in Australia to code causes of death, ICD-10 (WHO 1992), was endorsed in May 1990 and officially came into use in WHO member states from 1994. The 11th revision of the ICD was released in June 2018. Member States will begin reporting health data using ICD-11 in 2022. Further information on the ICD is available from the WHO website.
ICD-10-AM
Diagnosis, procedure and external cause hospital data for 2021–22 were reported to the NHMD by all states and territories using the 11th edition of the Australian Modification of ICD-10, referred to as the ICD-10-AM. ICD-10-AM, is based on ICD-10 (NCCC 2013). ICD-10 was modified for the Australian setting by the National Centre for Classification in Health to make it more relevant to Australian clinical practice. Compatibility with ICD-10 at the higher levels (that is, up to 4-character codes) of the classification has been maintained. ICD-10-AM has been used to classify diagnoses in admitted patient hospital records in all Australian states and territories since 1999–2000 (AIHW 2000).
The ICD-10-AM disease classification is hierarchical; a small number of summary disease chapters are divided into a large number of more specific disease groupings (represented by 3-character codes). Most of the 3-character disease groupings can be divided into an even larger number of very specific disease categories represented by 4- character and 5-character codes (see Table 1 in Technical information: Disease-related information).
References
ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) (2011) Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS), Volume 1 – Main Structure and Greater City Statistical Areas, ABS Website, accessed 26 March 2024.
ABS (2016) Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS), Volume 1 – Main Structure and Greater Capital City Statistical Areas, ABS Website, accessed 26 March 2024.
ABS (2018) Census of Population and Housing: Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA), Australia, 2016, ABS Website, accessed 26 March 2024.
ABS (2021) Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) Edition 3, ABS Website, accessed 28 March 2024.
AIHW (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare) (2000) Australian hospital statistics 1998–99, AIHW, Australian Government, accessed 29 August 2023.
NCCC (National Casemix and Classification Centre) (2013) The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision, Australian Modification (ICD-10-AM) - Eighth Edition. Sydney: NCCC, Australian Health Services Research Institute, University of Wollongong.
WHO (World Health Organisation) (1992) International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, tenth revision. Vol. 1. Geneva: WHO.
WHO (2022) International Classification of Diseases (ICD), WHO website, accessed 11 February 2023.