Categories of CV, selected chronic conditions, and risk factors with their corresponding Australian Bureau of Statistics’ National Health Survey (NHS) 2007–08 data category. Data self-reported unless otherwise specified.
| Variable Categories | Corresponding NHS07-08 Category |
|---|---|
| Communication vulnerability categories | |
| Hearing impairment | Complete or partial deafness or other hearing loss. |
| Vision impairment | Complete or partial blindness in 1 or both eyes; diabetes-related vision disability; glaucoma; macular degeneration or other disorders of choroid and retina; other visual disturbances or loss of vision. |
| Speech impairment | Any speech difficulty. |
| Cognitive disability | Intellectual disability; psychological disability; or head injury, or stroke- or brain damage-related disability. |
| Low educational attainment (as proxy for health literacy) | Completed up to secondary education of Yr 10 level (or less). |
| Country of birth (ESL; as proxy for English proficiency) | Country of birth where English was not the main language spoken; with subcategories of timing of arrival in Australia:
|
| Chronic condition categories | |
| Cardiovascular disease | Angina; other ischemic heart diseases; diseases of the arteries, arterioles, and capillaries; cerebrovascular diseases; edema and heart failure; other diseases of the circulatory system; cardiac murmurs and cardiac sounds; and other symptoms and signs involving the circulatory system. |
| Cancer | Malignant neoplasms of the skin, other malignant neoplasms, and site unknown. |
| Diabetes | Type 1, type 2, and type unknown. |
| Asthma | Asthma. |
| COPD | Bronchitis and emphysema. |
| Mental health | Alcohol and drug problems; other mood (affective) disorders; feeling depressed; anxiety-related problems; problems of psychological development; behavioral and emotional problems with usual onset in childhood/adolescence; other mental and behavioral problems; and symptoms/signs involving cognition, perceptions, emotional state, and behavior. |
| MSK | Arthritis – OA (97% responses in this category were OA; other responses included degeneration of specific joint, knee OA, and hip OA). Arthritis – rheumatoid (95% responses included RA; other responses included RA autoimmune; AS; arthritis inflammatory). Arthritis — other/type unknown and other arthropathies, other soft tissue disorders and rheumatism, back pain/problems (sciatica, disc disorders, curvature of the spine), gout, osteoporosis, other MSK (symptoms, signs involving nervous and musculoskeletal system, other diseases musculoskeletal system, and connective tissue). |
| Risk factor categories | |
| Biomedical | High blood pressure (reading of 140/90 mmHg or higher, measured during NHS07-08 interview), high cholesterol, obesity (BMI of 30.00 kg/m2 or more), and high blood sugar. |
| Lifestyle | Risky level of alcohol consumption (considers average daily alcohol consumed during previous 3 days and the total number of days alcohol was consumed in the week prior to interview: men 5–6 standard drinks, women 3–4 standard drinks), current smoker (regularly smoked 1 or more cigarettes, cigars, or pipes per day at the time of the interview), insufficient vegetable intake (less than 5 servings of vegetables per day for adults), insufficient fruit intake (less than 2 servings of fruit per day for adults), and low physical activity levels (very little or no exercise). |
CV: communication vulnerabilities; ESL: English as a second language; COPD: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; MSK: musculoskeletal conditions; OA: osteoarthritis; RA: rheumatoid arthritis; AS: ankylosing spondylitis; BMI: body mass index.