A guide to using measures of socio-economic status, remoteness and population denominators from the Australian Bureau of Statistics for epidemiological studies

Objective Australian Bureau of Statistics data on socio-economic status, service accessibility/remoteness and population denominators are useful in epidemiology, though complex to understand and apply. We provide information and resources to facilitate their use. Methods We compiled data from the Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA), the Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia (ARIA) and population estimates from across multiple years, taking into account changes in availability and formats of these data over time. Syntax was written to support use of these data in studies using administrative health data, alongside a user guide with notes and instructions. Results Where research data contains an event date plus a postcode, Statistical Area Level 2 and/or Statistical Local Area, these resources can be used to attach a SEIFA score and decile, remoteness areas and age-sex-specific population denominators to each record for years 2000-2025 (population denominators to 2023). These variables can be used as cohort descriptors, as model covariates or to calculate ARIA/SEIFA stratified rates. Conclusions These resources are useful for individual research projects, while also contributing to building capacity in the use of geographical measures. We focused on the measures most commonly used in Australia, although the approach outlined can be applied to other geographical measures.