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Data Management in Epidemiology

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Book cover Handbook of Epidemiology

Abstract

Data in epidemiological studies are obtained from several sources such as questionnaires, medical records, medical devices, or laboratory tests. Data management includes the transfer of such data into a (central) database as well as all subsequent processing activities and quality control. This chapter describes the most essential steps related to the collection, entry, storage, transport, cleaning, maintenance, and statistical processing of epidemiological data, which embrace all steps from raw data to the final dataset for statistical analysis.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The definition is simplified. From the perspective of a database administrator, for example, an ORACLE database consists of several files, and it is also possible to store more than one spreadsheet in one R file.

  2. 2.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11_missing_tapes, last access: July 19, 2012

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biometry and Data Management, Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiolgy - BIPS, Achterstraße 30, Bremen, Germany

    Hermann Pohlabeln, Achim Reineke & Walter Schill

Authors
  1. Hermann Pohlabeln
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  2. Achim Reineke
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  3. Walter Schill
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiological Methods and Etiologic Research, Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology – BIPS, Bremen, Germany

    Wolfgang Ahrens

  2. Department of Biometry and Data Management, Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology – BIPS, Bremen, Germany

    Iris Pigeot

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Pohlabeln, H., Reineke, A., Schill, W. (2014). Data Management in Epidemiology. In: Ahrens, W., Pigeot, I. (eds) Handbook of Epidemiology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-09834-0_48

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-09834-0_48

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-387-09833-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-387-09834-0

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