People in 1500 households in the Brisbane-South East Queensland region are being asked to participate in a major survey on quality of life which commences this week.
Funded by the Australian Research Council and conducted by The University of Queensland, specially trained telephone interviewers will be asking people what they value about living in the region, their local council area, their neighbourhood and their home.
They will be asked to rate their levels of satisfaction with their life in general, and about their work, council services, transport, and many other aspects of life in a big and rapidly growing metropolitan region.
People are being asked to provide information on their travel to and from work, their leisure and recreation activities, experiences of crime, purchases of household consumer goods, their participation in community activities, and their overall level of health and well-being.
The University of Queensland survey is part of a wider study on the dimensions and determinants of quality of life in big city regions. It is being conducted by a team led by Professors Bob Stimson and John Western and Dr Patrick Mullins. The survey is part of an international collaborative project on quality of life. Common sets of questions being asked of a sample survey of households in Brisbane-SEQ, the Detroit metro region in the US, the Eeinhoven region in the Netherlands, and Belo Horizonte in Brazil.
“The idea is to investigate the degree to which common factors determine people’s assessment of their quality of life and the degree to which any differences are related to societal, cultural, climatic and other factors that vary across different cities with different economic structures in different parts of the world”, said Professor Stimson.
“The Brisbane-SEQ region survey will also collect information in 2003 that enables us to identify how quality of life has changed there since the last survey we conducted in 1997.”
“The information collected in this type of survey is of importance for many government agencies and community groups. It can help us identify the things that need attention to enhance people’s quality of life which range from the big regional planning issues to local neighbourhood issues, the provision of transport and other services and facilities.”
Professor Western says “a new aspect of quality of life being addressed in this survey is to measure social capital at both the regional and local levels.”
The telephone survey is being conducted by the University of Queensland’s Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) facility. It takes about 40 minutes on average to complete.
“Our experience is that people really enjoy participating in this type of survey”, said Professor Western.
Results from the survey will be available to the media in mid year.
Media: Further information available from:
Professor Bob Stimson, Tel: (07) 3365 6307 Mobile: 0411-020 627
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