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At last, a national health measurement survey program for Australia!

Diana M S Hetzel and John D Glover
Med J Aust 2010; 193 (6): . || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2010.tb03938.x
Published online: 20 September 2010

Objective assessment of the health of the population is the key to policy and planning

Accurate, timely information about a population’s health, health risks and use of health services and medicines is essential for planning and evaluating health policies and care. Health surveys based on representative probability samples of the population are designed to provide this by collecting data on health behaviours, health determinants such as socioeconomic disadvantage and obesity, prevalence of diseases, need for health care and whether this has been provided, functional capacity, and nutritional status.1


  • Public Health Information Development Unit, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA.


Correspondence: di.hetzel@adelaide.edu.au

Competing interests:

Diana Hetzel has provided occasional advice to the Department of Health and Ageing and the ABS on issues relevant to the design of health measurement surveys. John Glover is a member of the ABS and Department of Health and Ageing Australian Health Survey Reference Group.

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  • 7. Hetzel D, editor. A proposal for the Australian Health Measurement Survey program. (AHMS working paper series no. 8.) Adelaide: Public Health Information Development Unit, 2003.
  • 8. Australian Bureau of Statistics. Overweight and obesity in adults, Australia, 2004–05. Canberra: ABS, 2008. (ABS Cat. No. 4719.0.)
  • 9. Coyne TJ, Findlay MG, Ibiebele TI, Firman DW. Overweight and obesity in Australia: an underestimate of the true prevalence [letter]? Med J Aust 2004; 180: 93-94. <MJA full text>
  • 10. Australian Bureau of Statistics and Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. 2011–13 Australian Health Survey: fact sheet. Canberra: DoHA, 2010. http://www.hsraanz.org/Files/Australian% 20Health%20Survey%20fact%20sheet%20July%202010%20v%203%20_2_.pdf (accessed Aug 2010).

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