CarePulse is a quarterly survey of Australians aged 50 and over about the aged care providers they know, consider and trust. It is run by Brand Health, an Australian brand research consultancy. This page explains who we survey, what we ask, and the standards any CarePulse finding has to meet before it is published.
Each quarter we survey a general population sample of Australians aged 50 and over. Respondents are not recruited because they use aged care, work in it or have a relative in it. They are recruited because they live in a particular place and fall within the age range, which is what makes the results a read on how the wider community sees providers rather than on the views of current clients.
Respondents are drawn from an established Australian online research panel. Each person is qualified on three things only: where they live, their age and their gender. Where they live is checked by postcode against the boundaries of the Aged Care Planning Region we are surveying, and anyone outside that region is screened out. Age is recorded in two groups, 50 to 64 and 65 and over, and anyone under 50 is screened out.
We measure at the level of Aged Care Planning Regions, the regions defined by the Australian Government for aged care. Any region can be added to fieldwork from the next quarter.
Within each region we track the providers most relevant to people living there, typically between 20 and 30. For each one we measure:
We also ask about the sector as a whole: how people see the reputation of aged care providers, whether they have seen recent news about the sector and what it did to their opinion, where they would go first to find information, and where they recall seeing aged care advertising.
Every respondent is also asked about their own situation: whether they or a family member currently use aged care, whether they are researching options, or whether they expect to need to choose a provider in the next five years. That lets us compare people who are actively involved in aged care decisions with those who are not, within the same sample.
Results are reported quarterly. Figures are unweighted, and we monitor the age and gender profile of every wave. Where a change between quarters could have been produced by a shift in who was surveyed rather than a shift in opinion, we recalculate it against a common age and gender profile and say so in our commentary.
CarePulse findings appear in our newsletter, on this site, on LinkedIn and in trade media. Every public finding follows three rules.
No provider is named. Public findings describe patterns across the sector, never the standing of a particular provider.
No figures for a single region are published. Provider results at region level are what subscribers receive, and they are not released publicly.
Patterns, not rankings. In a sector where most people know the main players, a ranked list with the names removed is barely anonymous, so we do not publish one.
No subscriber commissions, previews or approves any public finding.
Before any finding is published it is put through four checks. We apply them because findings that look strong often turn out to be produced by how the data was collected rather than by what people think.
Base size. No provider contributes to a published finding on fewer than 50 respondents. Where a question is asked only of people who recognise a provider, the check applies to that smaller group.
What each measure is based on. Some questions are asked only of people who gave a particular answer to an earlier one. Two measures built that way will move together by construction, so we establish what every figure is based on before comparing anything.
Stability. A finding has to hold within each region separately, not only when regions are combined, and it has to hold when smaller providers are removed. If it weakens or reverses as the base gets stronger, it is not published.
Sample composition. Any change reported between quarters is recalculated against a common age and gender profile. A change that exists only in the unadjusted figures is not reported as a finding.
Every published figure is also checked against a second, independent calculation before release.
Journalists and researchers who want to know more about how a particular finding was produced can contact us at hello@carepulse.au.