Breadcrumb Links:

The Australian Health and Social Science Panel

The AHSS panel is a group of people who are willing to participate in research by undertaking surveys; who become familiar with data collection protocols; and who have provided sufficient background data to screen for more specific sub-samples. Panel members do not need to have any special skill or knowledge to be involved in the project, the group is made up of a mixture of every day Australian adults.

In medicine and the social sciences, panel studies are often referred to as cohort or prospective studies as they aim to investigate specific theoretical constructs through the respondent's life-course. Equally, however, panels may be recruited with the aim of streamlining subsequent studies across a more diverse range of topics by providing researchers with willing and interested respondents. The AHSS Study panel is made up of a random sample of Australian adults living in each Australian state and territory, recruited via computer assisted telephone interviewing (CATI). Households were randomly selected and willing respondents were then provided with further information about the AHSS study via a website link. Members of the panel were asked to provide basic sociodemographic data (employment, education, etc) and answer brief questions about behavioural risk factors (smoking, alcohol, diet, exercise) and emotional and physical well-being