As you might have noticed in the new manager /entryclient sample file there is a time field. In other words this means that once we convert to the new EPX file format there is a time field (hh:mm:ss).
When you enter data in this type of field, two digits will be hour, four will be hour and minute and six will include seconds. Parts not filled in (less than six digits) are automatically saved as 00.
My experience from my daily work in the hospital here and reporting to national clinical databases it is quite annoying to enter data as a "true" date-time field, because one (here) has to use the mouse and click for entering date.
What is planned therefore is NOT a date-time field, but functions to combine a date field with a time field for export.
And obviously for graphs like Epicurves the x-axis will be able to use a data+timefield to use for graphing.
Regards Jens Lauritsen
Den 26-10-2010 00:49, epidata-list@lists.umanitoba.ca skrev:
Hi list members From time to time on the list we have discussed the value of having a datetime variable in Epidata. This is something I would find like, as the 'epidemic curve' is something that is an important part of any outbreak investigation. For short outbreaks that carry on over more than one day both the time and date are useful so youcan show numbers becoming ill every 6 hours for example over two or three days. The ability to map by datetime is one reason I often use EpiInfo for outbreak analysis, although I enter data in Epidata. I wanted to let any interested members know that a colleague has developed a simple text file that can be run as a programme in EpiINfo that coverts data entered in EPidata to a single datetime for use in EPiInfo. If you have entered an onset date as a date and onset time as a number with a decimal (e.g. 15.30) the programme converts the information into a single datetime variable - it can then be mapped using the EpiInfo histogram graph. Jens if you think this is useful at all would you like me to post this somewhere? Also is there any thought of creating a time field in Epidata?
thanks
Christine