Why a course with EpiData software?

o Requirement of data quality

o 5S principle (Eric Brenner, FoED):

Small; Simple; Stable; Speedy; Sufficient

o Freeware

o What is this course about?

Hans L Rieder

How can you know that the data entered into the spreadsheet are correct?

Spreadsheets are for calculations, they are not data entry forms!

sample1.qes: 73 bytessample1.rec: 292 bytesTotal: 365 bytes

sample3.qes: 88 bytessample3.rec: 337 bytesTotal: 425 bytes

sample2.mdb: 88064 bytes

Total: 88064 bytes

Windows!!

QES–REC-CHK !!

The “Epi Info Family”

Epi Info 6 Epi Info 7 EpiData

File 1 1.30 MB File 1 13.7 MB File 1 967 KB

File 2 1.29 MB - File 2 1.87 MB

File 3 1.30 MB - -

Total 3.89 MB Total 13.7 MB Total 2.84 MB

EpiData software is simple

QES file REC file CHK file

All files are simple straight text (ASCII) files!

EpiData software is stable

o It will rarely crash (only when the operating system is jeopardized)

o If it crashes, you will only loose the one record on which you are currently working

EpiData software is speedy

o Almost as fast as Epi Info 6

o Twice as fast as Epi Info 2 K

EpiData software is sufficient

o Data quality: assurance through CHK files and double-entry validation

o Documentation: document every step in data entry and analysis

o Safety: Rijndal (AE) encryption

EpiData software is freely available at:

www.epidata.dk

EpiData Entry (967 KB)

EpiData Analysis (1.87 MB)

What is this course about?

To demonstrate how data quality can be assured:

o By using checks to control data entry

o By working together

o By validating content through double entry and comparison

Double-entry and validation is possible with a spreadsheet, but…

=IF(B4=F4,"","Discordant")

…the spreadsheet does it variable by variable,EpiData efficiently only by discordant record