QSAS
Child health indicators
Release date 16 November 2016
Contents
Key health indicators .................................................................................................................................... 1
Body mass index (BMI) ............................................................................................................................. 1
Fruit and vegetable consumption .............................................................................................................. 2
Physical activity ......................................................................................................................................... 2
Sunburn .................................................................................................................................................... 3
Sociodemographic characteristics ................................................................................................................ 3
Population subgroups................................................................................................................................ 3
Additional information about population subgroups ................................................................................... 3
Geographic regions ................................................................................................................................... 3
Key health indicators
Within QSAS, graphs 1 and 3 display data by individual indicator (so only a subset of the population will be
displayed at any one time) while graph 2 displays results by indicator group (so 100% of the population is
displayed). In graphs 1 and 3, indicators are numbered by their associated indicator group, as detailed in
the following tables.
Results are available for 2013–14 and 2015–16 unless otherwise noted.
Body mass index (BMI)
BMI is calculated as a person’s weight (in kilograms) divided by their height (in metres) squared.
To adjust for children’s developmental stage, age and sex specific cutpoints are applied to create the BMI
categories:

Underweight/healthy weight

Overweight

Obese.
Reference: Cole T, Bellizzi M, Flegal K, Dietz W. Establishing a standard definition for child overweight and obesity worldwide:
international survey. British Medical Journal 2000;320:1-6.
Reference: Vidmar SI, Cole TJ, Pan H. Standardizing anthropometric measures in children and adolescents with functions for egen:
Update. Stata Journal 2013;13:366-378.
Parent/proxy respondents were also asked whether they perceived their child to be underweight, an
acceptable weight, or overweight.
Indicator group
Indicators within group
1. BMI (2 categories)
Underweight/healthy weight, overweight/obese
2. BMI (3 categories)
Underweight/healthy weight, overweight, obese
3. Parent perceived BMI
Parent perceives child to be underweight, acceptable weight, overweight
Note: The most current Queensland data includes BMI based on physical measurement from the Australian
Bureau of Statistics National Health Survey. Additional methodological information is available from
http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/[email protected]/Latestproducts/4364.0.55.001Appendix2201415?opendocument&tabname=Notes&prodno=4364.0.55.001&issue=2014-15&num=&view=
Fruit and vegetable consumption
Sufficient daily fruit or vegetable consumption was categorised according to the 2013 Australian dietary
guidelines. Mean daily fruit or vegetable consumption is also provided.
Age in years
Sex
Consumption
Males
Fruit
Vegetables
Females
2–3
4–8
9–11
12–13
14–18
19–50
51–70
>70
1
1.5
2
2
2
2
2
2
2.5
4.5
5
5.5
5.5
6
5.5
5
1
1.5
2
2
2
2
2
2
2.5
4.5
5
5
5
5
5
5
Fruit
Vegetables
Reference: Australian Government, National Health and Medical Research Council. Australian dietary guidelines 2013. Available:
https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/guidelines/publications/n55. Accessed 6 March 2014.
Indicator group
Indicators within group
1. Sufficient daily fruit
Sufficient daily fruit intake, insufficient daily fruit intake
2. Sufficient daily vegetables
Sufficient daily vegetable intake, insufficient daily vegetable intake
3. Mean serves of fruit
Mean daily serves of fruit
4. Mean serves of vegetables
Mean daily serves of vegetables
Physical activity
Physical activity guidelines were revised in 2014. Child guidelines remained the same, specifically, 60
minutes or more of physical activity every day.
The survey question was sourced from the National Secondary Students’ Diet and Physical Activity survey.
Parents were asked “Over the past seven days, on how many days was your child physically active for a
total of 60 minutes or more per day?” Children who had undertaken 60 minutes or more of physical activity
everyday were considered sufficiently physically active.
Reference: Australian Government Department of Health. Australia's physical activity and sedentary behaviour guidelines. Fact
sheet: children (5-12 years). Available: http://www.health.gov.au/paguidelines. Accessed 20 May 2014.
Reference: National Secondary Students' Diet and Physical Activity survey. Available: http://www.cancer.org.au/preventingcancer/nutrition-and-physical-activity/national-secondary-students-diet-and-physical-activity-survey.html. Accessed 4 April
2016.
Indicator group
Indicators within group
1. Sufficient physical activity
Insufficient physical activity in the last week, sufficient physical activity in the
last week
QSAS
Child health indicators
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Sunburn
This is defined as the percentage of the population that were sunburnt in the past 12 months.
Indicator group
Indicators within group
1. Sunburnt in the past 12 months
Sunburnt in the past 12 months, not sunburnt in the past 12 months
Results are available for 2013–14 only.
Sociodemographic characteristics
Population subgroups

Persons: children aged 5–17 years old

Sex--male or female

Age (2 groups)--5 to 11; 12 to 17 years

Age (4 groups)--5 to 7; 8 to 11; 12 to 15; 16 to 17 years

Socioeconomic status (SEIFA)--the most disadvantaged (quintile 1), quintile 2, quintile 3, quintile 4, the
most advantaged (quintile 5)

Remoteness (ARIA+), (4 categories)--major city; inner regional; outer regional, remote and very remote.

Remoteness (ARIA+), (5 categories)--major city; inner regional; outer regional, remote; very remote.
Additional information about population subgroups
Socioeconomic indexes for areas (SEIFA), developed by the Australia Bureau of Statistics, ranks areas
according to measures of relative social advantage and disadvantage. Of the four available indexes, the
preventive health telephone surveys series uses a population weighted version of the index of relative
socioeconomic advantage and disadvantage (IRSAD).
SEIFA scores are used to categorise areas into five quintiles with approximately 20% of the Queensland
population in each quintile. Quintile 1 represents the most disadvantaged areas increasing to quintile 5
representing the most advantaged areas.
Reference: Australian Bureau of Statistics. Census of population and housing: socio-economic indexes for areas (SEIFA), Australia
[data only]. Cat. No. 2033.0.55.001: Available: http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/[email protected]/DetailsPage/2033.0.55.0012011?
OpenDocument. Accessed 7 July 2013.
ARIA+ is a geographic method used to categorise areas by remoteness. It classifies areas into five types
(major cities, inner regional, outer regional, remote, and very remote) based on population size and
distance to the nearest service centre.
Reference: Australian Population and Migration Centre (APMRC). ARIA (accessibility/remoteness index of Australia).
http://www.adelaide.edu.au/apmrc/research/projects/category/about_aria.html. Accessed 9 August, 2013.
Geographic regions
Results can be displayed by a variety of geographic regions, specifically:

Queensland statewide results

Hospital and Health Service (HHS) areas

Primary Health Networks (PHN)
QSAS
Child health indicators
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