- EpiData-list - University of Manitoba Mailing Lists

Administrative comments on recent issues on EpiData-List
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 27 Oct '05

27 Oct '05

Good colleagues. A few administrative issues: 1. The list has been set up to enhance communication by e-mail and to limit size of each posting. For users with fast internet size of a mail is not a concern, but for people on slow modem lines large mails creates large problems. So as of now the following rules guide the list: a. Attachments must be small b. Text in e-mail must be small. A combined limit of 25kb has been defined. A few days back a user attached a rec file with the size of almost 1mb which is far exceeding this size. Individual users can exchange large attachments outside the list directly as suggested by Jamie Hockin. 2. Only certain attachments are allowed, e.g. small rec, chk and qes files. 3. Minimise the number of lines when you answer or comment on other mails. If a user asks a question - then on the reply only keep the minimal part indicating the topic of the question and reply. Otherwise the complete originating mail can be repeated several times. 4. Bouncing. When a person has an automatic mail saying e.g. "I am out of office please ....." then when a notice from the list comes to that person a message is sent to the person. The automatic message is sent back to the list, which then replies to the user etc. So if no mechanism controls several hundred mails can bounce back and forth. Therefore some users will experience to be automatically signed off the list. This is not a censorship or similar but a mechanism to avoid that everyone gets many "I am out of office..." messages. If you are excluded by "bounce-control" then just sign on to the list again when you are back from the leave. Or maybe create a different e-mail account which you use for receiving list messages. 5. Write in a specific and short manner and protect your e-mail adress You should be aware that messages you send to the list are: - distributed to all members (currently nearing 200) - is kept as part of the archive and is available for searching on internet. So to minimise the chance that your e-mail is trapped and used in a virus spread do not write it directly if you wish to receive personal mails, but write something like xxx at yyyy zz or similar. instead of xxx(a)yyyy.zz 6. Only users who are members of the list can submit messages. The first message by a new list member is sent to list administrators for approval. We could turn this off, but it will result in advertisements or spam messages every so often. I assume list members appreciate the principles above, but I am willing to discuss some of them. E.g. the size of allowed attachments and mails. Kind regards Jens Lauritsen EpiData Association

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New version 1.0 celebrations and few suggestions
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 27 Oct '05

27 Oct '05

Dear Jens and other friends of Epidata Team, I have just joined the list last week. First of all congratulations for the excellent software developed maintaining the simplicity of EPI6. Good graphic are good addition to that simplicity. Fine controls of percents in the Tables command are just superb. The wishlist is long and it takes lot of effort to fulfil that. However few suggestions; a. Multiple Bar Charts which can depict gender comparisons of a variable in the same graph. b. Freq command with switches such as freq v1 sum=v2, /n /p etc. c. Combine command. d. Freq command requires some corrections as simple freq command of a variable gives an error message "Too many categories". e. In the long run 3D graphic for appropriate data. Please keep up this good work. Sincerely, Dr. Shavinder Singh Department of Community Medicine,

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how do you get the file to test the problem?
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 26 Oct '05

26 Oct '05

Use EpiData to archive the file - it will be a fraction of the original size. You an do this from the Tools menu. If still too large, then we'll have to exchange e-mail addresses off the list somehow Jamie Hockin Public Health Agency of Canada

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variables COMMAND in Analysis
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 26 Oct '05

26 Oct '05

greetings. i just used the variables command in Analysis and the output results were a little surprising. the Value Lable field display was as follows: 1 = a 10 = 25 11 = 26. 19 = 29 2 = b 20 = 30 The Freq or tables command had the same issue at one time. we had this discussion about why before. 1 2 3 4 etc. is a better output in the end. -----Original Message----- From: epidata-list-bounces(a)lists.umanitoba.ca on behalf of epidata-list-request(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Sent: Wed 10/26/2005 10:12 AM To: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Cc: Subject: EpiData-list Digest, Vol 24, Issue 14 Send EpiData-list mailing list submissions to epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists.umanitoba.ca/mailman/listinfo/epidata-list or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to epidata-list-request(a)lists.umanitoba.ca You can reach the person managing the list at epidata-list-owner(a)lists.umanitoba.ca When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of EpiData-list digest..."

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tried to send but Moderator said no files sze is to big(685KB). how do you get the file to test the problem?
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 26 Oct '05

26 Oct '05

-----Original Message----- From: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca [mailto:epidata-list@lists.umanitoba.ca] Sent: Wed 10/26/2005 9:21 AM To: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Cc: Subject: [EpiData-list] Analysis read time and "too many catagories" greetings. i have atached a .rec file with 165,905 records, each 44 bytes. (1) it takes EpiAnalysis 10 seconds to open compared to instant availability in Epi6. why so slow? (2) using EpiAnalysis FREQ DATE resulted in error... "Too Many Catagories", no output. why??? (3) using Epi6 time for FREQ DATE was 1.9 seconds. slowness we can perhaps tolerate but no output on FREQ may be an issue. Or, it could be ther user. thank you and stay safe, kelly -----Original Message----- From: epidata-list-bounces(a)lists.umanitoba.ca on behalf of epidata-list-request(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Sent: Tue 10/25/2005 1:01 PM To: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Cc: Subject: EpiData-list Digest, Vol 24, Issue 13 Send EpiData-list mailing list submissions to epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists.umanitoba.ca/mailman/listinfo/epidata-list or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to epidata-list-request(a)lists.umanitoba.ca You can reach the person managing the list at epidata-list-owner(a)lists.umanitoba.ca When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of EpiData-list digest..."

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Analysis read time and "too many catagories"
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 26 Oct '05

26 Oct '05

greetings. i have atached a .rec file with 165,905 records, each 44 bytes. (1) it takes EpiAnalysis 10 seconds to open compared to instant availability in Epi6. why so slow? (2) using EpiAnalysis FREQ DATE resulted in error... "Too Many Catagories", no output. why??? (3) using Epi6 time for FREQ DATE was 1.9 seconds. slowness we can perhaps tolerate but no output on FREQ may be an issue. Or, it could be ther user. thank you and stay safe, kelly -----Original Message----- From: epidata-list-bounces(a)lists.umanitoba.ca on behalf of epidata-list-request(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Sent: Tue 10/25/2005 1:01 PM To: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Cc: Subject: EpiData-list Digest, Vol 24, Issue 13 Send EpiData-list mailing list submissions to epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists.umanitoba.ca/mailman/listinfo/epidata-list or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to epidata-list-request(a)lists.umanitoba.ca You can reach the person managing the list at epidata-list-owner(a)lists.umanitoba.ca When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of EpiData-list digest..."

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Using Epidata for a central server
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 26 Oct '05

26 Oct '05

Hello 1.About having a central server, please refer to the website and read the limitation of Epidata. 2.Well you can use the qes for data management or also use the option of preparing one data screen(rec file)and use the option of copy structure which is located at the tools menu.The advantage is that; 1. It is fast 2. There is no need to prepare another check. With these option, data entry staff can entry data for you and you have to merge them to have a collective data either at epidata or using spss. Using text fields.It is possible to enter open-ended questions and narrative with Epidata but it limitatiton is that it takes up to 80 characters whilst that of spss DE takes about 256 characters SEDZRO KOJO MENSAH P.O.Box AS 387 Ashaiman -Tema Ghana House : +233-22-300789 MOBILE : +233-244-458788 Homepage http://rastafarionline.com/rasbesa Open WebMail Project (http://openwebmail.org) ---------- Original Message ----------- From: epidata-list-request(a)lists.umanitoba.ca To: epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Sent: Tue, 25 Oct 2005 12:01:20 -0500 (CDT) Subject: EpiData-list Digest, Vol 24, Issue 13 > Send EpiData-list mailing list submissions to > epidata-list(a)lists.umanitoba.ca > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://lists.umanitoba.ca/mailman/listinfo/epidata-list > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > epidata-list-request(a)lists.umanitoba.ca > > You can reach the person managing the list at > epidata-list-owner(a)lists.umanitoba.ca > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of EpiData-list digest..." ------- End of Original Message -------

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External reference for data entry: length limitation
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 25 Oct '05

25 Oct '05

Dear friends. Using COMMENT LEGAL function in order to select strings and get their respective codes from a separate REC file, I wanted to get CID10 codes and their respective Descriptions during data entry. In my parent CHK file you can see: DISEASE COMMENT LEGAL CID10.REC SHOW TYPE COMMENT CIDCODE END CIDCODE NOENTER END In my reference CHK file you'd read: DISEASE KEY 1 END CID10 KEY UNIQUE 2 END It's working fine, except that, in the pop-up window of reference the description of DISEASE is shown length limited to 30 characters, despite of my reference REC file showing 70. Any clue? Thanks in advance. MARCO MOURA ================================== Dr. MARCO Antonio MOURA Reis, MD, PhD Discipline of Medical Informatics Department of Medicine University of Region of Joinville - UNIVILLE Joinville (SC) - BRAZIL E-mail: mmoura(a)infomedica.com.br ==================================

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Re: Multiple locations input
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 25 Oct '05

25 Oct '05

Well, Megan. As I know, simultaneous entries are not possible. I have been using EpiData in clinical research and constantly dealing with multiple users input. Right now I am creating a set of files to be used for a multicenter study about Neonatal Care Units (up to 50). What I do is to distribute sets of REC/CHK files (named specifically after each center) and recover the filled REC files through the use of a Web based free, but access-limited Group (like Yahoo Groups), what turns to be a additional backup system for my precious files. Having different files make it possible to first check the adequacy of each file before combining them. Combine files is quite fast and easy. Hope it helps. MARCO MOURA ================================== Dr. MARCO Antonio MOURA Reis, MD, PhD Discipline of Medical Informatics Department of Medicine University of Region of Joinville - UNIVILLE Joinville (SC) - BRAZIL E-mail: mmoura(a)infomedica.com.br ==================================

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Multiple users - question by Megan Reif
by epidata-list＠lists.umanitoba.ca 25 Oct '05

25 Oct '05

Dear Megan: I can tell you a bit about our experience with multiple users in different countries we have had. We use one original set: original.qes original.rec original.chk Once this is definitively agreed upon, we use Copy structure (including the check file) to get: a.rec a.chk b.rec b.chk .. as many as we need and give one pair to each user (actually in duplicate for double entry). They enter the data at their leisure and then email the validated *.rec files. Because these files are so small, this can be done from even the slowest email connection (which matters to us as we work in some of the poorest countries). In EpiData Analysis, we simply do: close erase "abcd.rec" read "a.rec" append "b.rec" append "c.rec" append "d.rec" savedata "abcd.rec" close read "abcd.rec" People in the periphery simply continue to enter data into a.rec or b.rec and send so and so often the updated file, and the coordinator runs the append.pgm again. We did this with 30 locations in Zimbabwe collaborating with 31 locations in Mongolia, with a similar set-up for Moldowa collaborating with Uganda, and we never had a need for a central server. Email did just fine. A file with 58,000 records and and 9 fields took just 2 MB. I hope this helps a bit with that part of your question. Regards, Hans Rieder

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