ACTGHS self described weight, children

Commentary

In 2021, respondents to the ACT General Health Survey aged 5-17 years were significantly more likely to describe their weight as healthy (87.2%) than underweight (5.0%) or overweight (7.3%). There was no significant difference between males and females in any of the self described weight categories in 2021.

For the purpose of reporting the ACT General Health Survey data on HealthStats, if the 95% confidence intervals of the estimates do not overlap, they are considered to be significantly different.

Note: The indicator shows self-reported data collected through Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI). Estimates were weighted to adjust for differences in the probability of selection among respondents and were benchmarked to the estimated residential population using the latest available Australian Bureau of Statistics population estimates.

Data for children are not collected every third year (i.e. 2019 and 2022).

Responses for children aged 5-15 years were provided by the parent/carer who knows the most about the child's health. Persons includes male, female, other and refused sex respondents and may not always add to the sum of male and female.

The following estimates have a relative standard error of 25% to 50% and should be used with caution:

• 2018: underweight person and males and overweight persons and females
• 2020: underweight females
• 2021: underweight and overweight females.

The following estimates have not been published due to small numbers or a relative standard error greater than 50%:

• 2018: very overweight persons, males and females, underweight females and overweight males
• 2020 and 2021: very overweight persons, males and females.

Statistically significant differences are difficult to detect for smaller jurisdictions such as the Australian Capital Territory. Sometimes, even large apparent differences may not be statistically significant. This is particularly the case in breakdowns of small populations because the small sample size means that there is not enough power to identify even large differences as statistically significant.

Chart

Proportion of children aged 5 to 17 years whose weight was described as underweight, healthy, overweight or very overweight, ACT General Health Survey, 2018-2021

Data

To access the data, select "View source data" link at the bottom of the visualisation. This link will open up a data table that you can download.

Codes and sources

Q. How would you describe your weight?

Underweight
Healthy weight
Overweight
Very overweight
Don't know
Refused

Don't know and refused responses were excluded from analysis.

A copy of the ACT General Health Survey questionnaires can be found in Data collections.