Data Element Detail

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Identifying and Definitional Attributes
Representational Attributes
Collection and Usage Attributes
Relational Attributes
Source and Reference Attributes

Country of birth

Identifying and Definitional Attributes

Identifier & Version

QH 040161 v4

Metadata Item Type

Data Element

Data Element Type

Data Element

Approval Status

Current
02-Sep-2003

Superseded
19-Oct-2008

Approval Type

Standard

Approving Authority

Effective From

01-Jul-2004

Effective To

19-Oct-2008

Definition

The country in which the person was born.

Context

Country of birth is important in the study of access to services by different population sub-groups. Country of birth is the most easily collected and consistently reported of a range of possible data items that may indicate cultural or language diversity. Country of birth may be used in conjunction with other data elements such as Period of residence in Australia, etc., to derive more sophisticated measures of access to (or need for) services by different population sub-groups.

Short Name

Country of birth

Name in Other Contexts

Representational Attributes

Datatype

Numeric Character

Representation Class

Code

Format

N(4)

Minimum Character Length

Maximum Character Length

Permissible Values

Permissible_values


Standard Australian Classification of Countries 1998 (SACC). Australian Bureau of Statistics Cat. no. 1269.0 Reference through http://www.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/abs@.nsf/StatsLibrary Select ABS classifications

Supplementary Values

Supplemenary_values

Collection and Usage Attributes

Guide for Use

The Standard Australian Classification of Countries 1998 (SACC) is a 4-digit, three-level hierarchical structure specifying major group, minor group and country.
A country, even if it comprises other discrete political entities such as states, is treated as a single unit for all data domain purposes. Parts of a political entity are not included in different groups. Thus, Hawaii is included in Northern America (as part of the identified country United States of America), despite being geographically close to and having similar social and cultural characteristics as the units classified to Polynesia.

New

Verification Rules

Collection Methods

Note that the Standard Australian Classification of Countries (SACC) is mappable to but not identical to Australian Standard Classification of Countries for Social Statistics (ASCCSS)
Some data collections ask respondents to specify their country of birth. In others, a pre-determined set of countries is specified as part of the question, usually accompanied by an 'other (please specify)' category.

Recommended questions are:
In which country were you/was the person/was (name) born?
Australia
Other (please specify)

Alternatively, a list of countries may be used based on, for example common Census responses.

In which country were you/was the person/was (name) born?
Australia
England
New Zealand
Italy
Viet Nam
Scotland
Greece
Germany
Philippines
India
Netherlands
Other (please specify)

In either case coding of data should conform to the SACC.
Sometimes respondents are simply asked to specify whether they were born in either 'English speaking' or 'non-English speaking' countries but this question is of limited use and this method of collection is not recommended.

Comments

Relational Attributes

Related Metadata References

Related Metadata References_IR

1 - 3

Relationship	Metadata Item Type	Metadata Item Subtype	Name	Identifier & Version	Approval Status
Supersedes	Data Element	Data Element	Country of birth	QH 040161 Version 3	Superseded
Has been superseded by	Data Element	Data Element	Person-country of birth	QH 040161 Version 5	Superseded
Relates to	Data Element	Data Element	Main language other than English spoken at home	QH 040848 Version 1	Superseded

Implementation in Metadata Sets

Implemented

1 - 5

Metadata Item Type	Metadata Item Subtype	Name	Identifer & Version	Obligation	Approval Status	Effective From	Effective To
Information Asset	Data Collection	Elective Surgery Data Collection (ESDC)	QH 020110 Version 1	Mandatory	Superseded	01-Jul-2004	30-Jun-2009
Information Asset	Data Collection	Emergency Data Collection (EDC)	QH 020159 Version 1	Mandatory	Superseded	01-Jul-2004	30-Jun-2009
Information Asset	Data Collection	Queensland Cancer Registry (QCR) Data Collection	QH 020002 Version 1		Superseded	01-Jul-2004	30-Jun-2009
Information Asset	Data Collection	Queensland Hospital Admitted Patient Data Collection (QHAPDC)	QH 020001 Version 1	Mandatory	Superseded	01-Jul-2004	30-Jun-2009
Information Asset	Data Collection	Queensland Perinatal Data Collection (QPDC)	QH 020003 Version 1	Mandatory	Superseded	01-Jul-2004	30-Jun-2009

Data Quality Declaration

Source and Reference Attributes

Source Organisation

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare

Source Document

METeOR data element: Person-country of birth, code (SACC 1998) NNNN, Identifier 270277, Health standard 01/03/2005 https://meteor.aihw.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/270277/meteorItemView/long
METeOR data element: Person-country of birth, code (SACC 2008) NNNN, Identifier 370943, Health standard 01/10/2008 https://meteor.aihw.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/370943/meteorItemView/long

Keywords

CRDI; CRDI EDC; CRDI QHAPDC; CRDI QPDC; Country; Nationality;