I also use EpiData mainly in outbreak situations and would agree that in these circumstances the automatic fieldnames settings seem to be best. I recommended that in some training I gave for colleagues around Wales recently.

Alastair --------------------------------------- Alastair Tomlinson Chartered Environmental Health Practitioner / Ymarferydd Iechyd Amgylcheddol Siartredig Team Leader (Health Improvement) / Arweinydd Tîm (Gwella Iechyd) Public Protection Division, Strategic Planning & Environment / Adran Diogelwch Cyhoeddus, Cynllunio Strategol a'r Amgylchedd

Tel / Ffôn: 029 2087 1845 ATomlinson@cardiff.gov.uk

-----Original Message----- From: epidata-list@lists.umanitoba.ca [mailto:epidata-list@lists.umanitoba.ca] Sent: 02 April 2007 22:56 To: epidata-list@lists.umanitoba.ca Subject: [EpiData-list] First word or Automatic Field Names

I am interested as to why the default setting for Epidata for Field names is first word. I assume because it is the default setting that it is the most commonly used. Do other people use the first word setting when developing questionnaires? I have always used the automatic field names settings.

I use Epidata mainly for outbreak questionnaires. For these we ask standard questions each time 1. descriptive details about the person 2. information about the pattern of illness 3. information about the things (usually food) that a person has been exposed to

Becuase you have to develop questionnaires quickly when there is an outbreak I have a 'master file' which is like a template. When there is a new outbreak I just change the exposures and save it as a new name.

The following is a sample of what part of the epidata qes file would look like:

First name __________ Last Name _________ Sex <A> DOB <mm/dd/yyyy> Ill <Y> Diarrhoea <Y> OnsetDate <mm/dd/yyyy> Ham <Y> Beef <Y> Chicken <Y>

What would be the advantage of using the first name setting? It would mean the field for the first name in the example above would be 'First'. I have seen people develop questionnaires that use say V1 as the field and Ham as the label. But it seems to be to be much easier to analyse data when the field name is self explanatory. I give other people the advice to set up their questionnaire like I have and I don't want to be telling them the wrong thing, so would be interested to know what other people do.

thanks

Christine

Christine Roseveare Analyst Regional Public Health 570 9194 027 495 9671

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