Data sources and graphical presentation of results

Data sources

Data types

The Chief Health Officer report uses a wide range of data sources to assess the health status of Queenslanders. Information collected for health monitoring typically include information from individuals, from health care providers or facilities, and environmental monitoring. Examples commonly used in this report are:

• Surveys–structured data collection from the entire population (for example, the Census) or a subset (for example, a sample of the general population or people with certain health conditions).
• Notifications–when reporting for a condition is required by law, regulation or other types of agreements. This can also include required notifications for environmental exposures or contaminants.
• Registries–track events or persons over time and may be event-based (for example birth and death certificates) or disease-specific (for example, cancer or rheumatic heart disease registry).
• Administrative records–health records primarily collected for another purpose (for example, health service billing or individual patient care) but may also be useful in wider public health monitoring.

Each type of data source has strengths and limitations, and these will be affected by underlying data collection protocols and other factors specific to each source. The most appropriate source will vary based on considerations such as the health condition, the completeness of the data (coverage), and how results will be interpreted and generalised.

Data principles

It is not uncommon for similar health information to be available from multiple sources and for results to vary somewhat between sources. As health information becomes increasingly available across multiple systems, this is becoming increasingly more common. For most data sources, this does not mean that a data source is right or wrong–it is a function of the underlying purpose of the data and the resulting collection, compilation, manipulations and analytical frameworks applied.

This report has used the following principles to assist with interpreting data and results.

• Data are sourced from the primary data custodian when possible. A list of Queensland Health data custodians is available from the Queensland Health - Health Innovation, Investment and Research Office.
• De-identified data and/or aggregate data generated for public health reporting are preferred and are predominantly used in this report.
• Secondary data sources are used when the secondary source has augmented data with additional calculations, data cleaning or data manipulations that provide more information than the primary source.
• Where possible, alignment with key health monitoring system was preferred (for example, the Report on Government Services and Closing the Gap).
• To report by priority data dis-aggregations (for example, Hospital and Health Services or remoteness areas) multiple data sources may be used.
• The data source is clearly identified in text, figures and tables.
• Factors that contributed to decisions on the use of specific data sources is documented in the Chief Health Officer report data sources table that accompanies this report.

Data presentation

The Chief Health Officer report is intended for use by a wide audience. To meet these diverse needs, data are commonly presented in both graphical and tabular formats. Graphical presentation includes both static and dynamic formats.

Data dashboards

Data dashboards, also known as visualisations, provide dynamic and interactive content. Various filters are included that allow Readers to interact with the information to explore different aspects of the information such as health conditions, outcomes and sociodemographic disaggregations.

Broad instructions on how to use the dashboard are provided as a hover box that will appear when Readers place their cursor over the information icon.

Results for health indicators is provided as either hover boxes on the graph elements or as text statements at the bottom of some dashboards. Several dashboards (for example, in the Our Lifestyle section) also provide the results in tabular format.

Static graphs in tabs

Tabs are used to show multiple static graphs in a single report sub-section. The final tab in the series contains the results in a tabular format. In some instances, there are more tabs than are visible–this is indicated by a scroll bar icon.

Additional results

This report typically provides a subset of information available from the primary data source. Access to these additional results may be provided

• as a hyperlink on the dashboard/figure
• in the Reference section as a hyperlink for the relevant item
• as a hyperlink in the report data sources table.

Chief Health Officer report data sources