Survey characteristics

Table 5.1. reports the characteristics of the oral health workforce by practitioner division by Ahpra at the time of the survey. DH’s had a higher proportion of the workforce in the mid-age brackets and 4.1% males. Compared to other states and territories, SA had a higher proportion of DHs. Two thirds of the DT workforce were 50 years of age or older. OHTs were younger with 44.3% less than 30 years and 42.1% 30-39 years of age. OHTs had the highest proportion of males with 12.0%.

The unweighted and weighted characteristics of survey participants are reported in Table 5.2. Survey respondents underrepresented males and those aged 60 years or older. Geographically, survey respondents from QLD and South Australia were overrepresented, whereas those from NSW, VIC, and WA were underrepresented. DHs were overrepresented in the sample, while DTs had fewer respondents.

Following adjustment, OHPs were predominantly female consisting of 91.4% of the workforce. The age distribution was negatively skewed towards younger ages, with 60.9% less than 40 years of age. The Australian states of NSW (26.1%), VIC (22.1%) and QLD (17.9%) had the largest proportions of OHPs. OHTs consisted of over half (51.7%) of the OHP workforce, followed by DHs (26.7%).

The unweighted characteristics of survey respondents by division are reported in Appendix Table 5.1.

Table 5.1. Characteristics of the oral health workforce by practitioner division by Ahpra.

Table 5.2. Unweighted and weighted characteristics of the oral health workforce survey.