The National CATI TRG has a number of major activities. A brief description of each of these is given on this page, together with links to related documents that provide more information.

The third CATI Forum was held in Sydney at the Powerhouse Museum on 27 and 28 November 2001 (see Forum 2001 below). The Second Forum was held in Adelaide in February 2000 (see Forum 2000) and the first Forum was held in Melbourne in October 1998 (see Forum 1998).

Key activities include module development and the support and development of 'Buddy' Surveys.

Module development

The module development sub-committee is currently working on:

• revising the framework for the modular development process based on progress to date;
• developing conceptual frameworks for areas where modules are to be produced. To date, these are: asthma; diabetes; demographics; physical activity; tobacco; alcohol; nutrition.
• Testing of proposed questions based on conceptual framework for each module including ABS pre-testing of three modules and field-testing by States

'Buddy' Surveys

In November and December 2000 a joint survey covering Western Australia, Northern Territory and South Australia (WANTSA) was conducted with a focus on Well-Being and was funded primarily by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care.

The existing CATI infrastructure in SA is being used to collect the data. These data will be used to underpin policy and intervention decisions on population health issues and to analyse and explain associated risk and risk factors. The collaborative process is being documented to assist future collaborative CATI exercises.

A second 'Buddy' Survey was conducted in 2001 to cover Tasmania and Victoria. Again, primarily funded by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care, this survey has the following goals:

• to understand the factors that mediate between global and socioeconomic influences and health and wellbeing outcomes in rural communities and
• to provide information that will influence policy development, programs and practice.

Objectives include:

• To trial the 'buddy' system (two-State partnership) as part of developing a national health monitoring and surveillance capacity in Australia.
• To develop a CATI appropriate module of questions on social and economic status.
• To identify the best available summary health and wellbeing measure for use in the survey.
• To develop a CATI appropriate module of questions to measure community capacity (to promote population health and wellbeing).
• To develop a CATI appropriate module to assess the accessibility and appropriateness of services.
• To develop a CATI appropriate module on individual capacity or personal efficacy (to promote health and wellbeing).

Forum 2001

The third CATI Forum was held in Sydney at the Powerhouse Museum on 27 and 28 November 2001.

Day one's focus was on the measurement of Health Inequalities and on Day two, the primary focus was on Survey Response and Data Quality.

Each day commenced with an international plenary speaker, followed by leading Australian speakers in the field.

Forum 2000

The proceedings of this forum are available in PDF format:

The Second Australian Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) Population Health Surveys Forum - Proceedings (Adelaide, February 2000) [PDF file, 1.7MB]

A journal publication of the forum is currently being prepared.

Forum 1998

CATI Population Health Survey Forum - Melbourne, October 1998

The program and presentations at this first Forum are available in HTML format:

Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) Population Health Surveys Forum - Melbourne, October 1998

Authorised by: Executive Officer, NPHP
Contact: Darryl Kosch, nphp@dhs.vic.gov.au
Page last updated: 8 October, 2004

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