Sandy asks why particular defaults were chosen for the tables command and outbreak analysis.
The reason is simple - we had to make a decision and usually I tend to work with 1 being indicator of a given status, e.g. case or exposure and 0 being the "non-case" or "non-exposure". As simple as that, in other words it is a matter of preference.
I could have argued that we went over several epidemiological text books and found the most common choice of values. But the reality is that there is no uniform standard we could use.
The import decision is therefore to be very specific about how the values are interpreted and used. - and to add options - e.g. the /SA option - for further control by users. It is good practice to study the command reference for the commands you are using. Many options exist and are thoroughly explained in the command reference, which you find in the help menu of analysis.
The key design choice in all commands is to document exactly the codes used. You should also notice that in all commands the number of informative observations and the number of total observations is always readily seen in the output. Should there be a command, where this is not the case let us know on the list or report to the flyspray database.
Regards Jens Lauritsen EpiData Association On 12-08-2010 18:39, epidata-list@lists.umanitoba.ca wrote:
Hi Jamie, Thanks for the suggestions. The command: /sa worked. Will this always be the case? Will I always have to reverse the values? Why is the program taking the higher values of the variables to mean case and exposed as the default setting? I do have the latest version of analysis. Sandy