In 1996, women in three age groups (born 1973–78, 1946–51 and 1921–26) were randomly selected from the national Medicare database.
[citation needed] The primary method of data collection employed by ALSWH is self-completed surveys.
ALSWH also includes a qualitative data set, where participants are asked to write anything they feel is important to their health and wellbeing in a free response space at the end of the survey.
[4] A wide range of topics has been covered, including:[citation needed] ALSWH has approval to anonymously link survey data with a number of national and state-based administrative datasets.
This information has assisted federal and state governments to plan for the future and to develop and evaluate health policy and practice relevant to Australian women.