Research Projects 2012
Title of Project
Evaluating changes in health need in Western Australia
Major CHIRI theme(s)
Population health research
Program theme
Data Linkage – Health Informatics and Genomics
Start date
Chief Supervisor
Other Supervisors
Flexible
Associate Professor Rachael Moorin
Project outline
(For example
background, aim,
methodology etc)
Background:
The aim of this project is to examine changes in composite and disease-specific
measures of burden of disease for Western Australia over time. The premature
mortality rate has been advocated as the best single indicator of population
health status, because of its powerful association with self-reported health
measures and its relative independence from measures of health care utilisation.
The evaluations of such measures are an important component of needs-based
health service planning.
Outline:
This will involve the calculation of all-cause and disease-specific premature
mortality rates and years of life lost at the level of postcode over 5 year periods
from 1980 to 2004. In addition, changes in the rate of potentially avoidable
mortality and potentially avoidable hospitalisations will also be evaluated. This
project requires utilisation of morbidity and mortality data from the WA Data
Linkage System and calculation of age and sex standardised premature mortality
rates. The correlation of the premature mortality rates with measures of socioeconomic status, area of residence (eg. metro, rural, remote) and measures of
morbidity (eg hospital admission rates) will be examined.
It is anticipated that similar methodologies to those employed in ‘The health of
the people of New South Wales’ Report of the Chief Health Officer, 2004, NSW
Department of Health will be used. The report is available at:
http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/publichealth/chorep/cho2004_pdf/choindex_pdf.htm
Through this project the candidate will acquire skills at an introductory to
intermediate level in the analysis of linked health data. The project is especially
recommended to those with an aptitude for computing and quantitative research
methods. It is expected that the candidate will draft, under supervision, a paper
for publication in a scientific journal.
Keywords
This project is
suitable for
Data linkage, epidemiology
Honours
X
Masters
X
PhD
Essential
Qualifications
Undergraduate units in Epidemiology / Biostatistics
Essential skills
Experience with statistical analysis packages such as SPSS or STATA
Funding
No project specific funding is available
Contact for further
information
Associate Professor Rachael Moorin
Program Leader Health Services Research |
Centre for Population Health Research |
Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute (CHIRI) |
Faculty of Health Sciences
Curtin University
Tel | +61 8 9266 1854
Fax | +61 8 9266 1866