Definition
A code that represents s person's current relationship status in terms of a couple relationship or, for those not in a couple relationship, the existence of a current or previous registered marriage.
Components
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Data Element ConceptPerson: Marital Status
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Object ClassPerson
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PropertyMarital Status
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Value DomainMarital Status Code N
Representation
This representation is based on the value domain for this data element, more information is available at " Marital Status Code N ".| Data Type | Number |
|---|---|
| Format | N |
| Maximum character length | 1 |
| Value | Meaning | Start Date | End Date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Permissible Values | 1 | Never married | ||
| 2 | Widowed | |||
| 3 | Divorced | |||
| 4 | Separated | |||
| 5 | Married (registered and de facto) | |||
| Supplementary Values | 6 | Not stated/inadequately described |
Comments
Origin:
National Health Data Standards Committee
National Community Services Data Committee
Comments:
The ABS standards identify two concepts of marital status:
- Registered marital status - defined as whether a person has, or has had, a registered marriage;
- Social marital status - based on a person's living arrangement (including de facto marriages), as reported by the person.
It is recommended that the social marital status concept be collected when information on social support/home arrangements is sought, whereas the registered marital status concept need only be collected where it is specifically required for the purposes of the collection.
While marital status is an important factor in assessing the type and extent of support needs, such as for the elderly living in the home environment, marital status does not adequately address the need for information about social support and living arrangement and other data elements need to be formulated to capture this information.