Summary

Until recently, disabled people have been invisible within a lot of social research. While there are now more data sources identifying disabled people, most of them are based on sample surveys and/or single-year collections. Making use of health and disability service data in Stats NZ’s Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI) provides a potential option to support inquiries into sub-populations and specific interventions and services and compare changes over time.

This study presents a methodology for identifying which health and disability services could best represent the population of disabled people and assesses two indicators combining different services. It is focused on people aged 15 to 64.

The study demonstrates that it is feasible to combine data in the IDI from health and disability services to create an indicator of disability that can be used in research and analysis. The indicator will not be identical to the disability indicators in the censuses or New Zealand Disability Surveys but will identify an overlapping group of people with similar characteristics and life outcomes.

Two options for indicators are described at the end of this paper. One option primarily uses the Disability Allowance data, while the other uses a wider range of data sources, including ACC. The decision about which one to use needs to be considered within the context of the research being undertaken. The best approach for those wishing to explore this further for policy or research purposes would be to run the method described in the paper for the specific population being investigated to identify which services to include.

A key limitation for this kind of indicator is that it is based on accessing government-funded health and disability support. It excludes disabled people who haven’t accessed this support. Their experiences and outcomes may be different. People who do access support can find the administrative processes difficult and burdensome and may feel that they have had to give away control over their lives and bodies to receive the support they need. This means that they could view an indicator using service data as reinforcing the negative and disempowering experiences of being disabled. These limitations must also be acknowledged in any research.