Ashley Allen
Dat 205
5-1 Data Timeline
February 1, 2023
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DATA:
The CDC initially collected the data via questionnaires given to citizens of Alabama. Heart
Matters afterwards acquired this knowledge: There are the following things: People who live at
the applicant's house
Body measurements of the responder
if there is a particular medical condition The respondent's medical coverage situation and ability
to pay out-of-pocket expenses
If applicable, any prescriptions for a specific medical condition o Details on the the applicant's
nicotine use
Inaccurate assumptions regarding the relationship between Alabamans' access to quality
healthcare and the diseases they are diagnosed with may result from a lack of knowledge about
these factors. For instance, when people with low incomes fill out the questionnaires, the
findings are more likely to be prejudiced towards a lack of access to medical care. On the other
hand, the statistics will probably demonstrate that high smoking rates are causing linked ailments
when the surveys are completed mostly by blue-collar employees. More accurate results can be
formed if the data are gathered from individuals with different economic backgrounds.
THE DATA PROVENANCE:
Lost information occurred as a result of the data moving through at least five distinct hands and
storage mediums by the time it was gathered and retrieved by Heart Matters. Early in 2017: The
CDC carried out its BRFSS survey, gathered the data, and made it accessible to the general
public. A CSV file containing the BRFSS data was requested from the CDC by Heart Matters
later in 2017; the data was then kept on an encrypted hard drive. The codebook and data were
physically moved to a new place at the beginning of 2018 by the IT administrator utilizing newly
acquired finances. The new SQL database received it through import. Data loss occurred in June
2018 due to CSV file characters that were unreadable by the new database. Heart Matters'
Alabama office's newest data analyst located here identified this information. January 2023: As a
new data analyst, it is my responsibility to examine the dataset to see whether it still includes
important information and where gaps may exist.
THE DATA MANAGEMENT
Due to erroneous characters being imported, the data is now stored in two separate formats: a
CSV file and a SQL database. Reimporting an earlier version of the data source is advised. The
CDC website makes it simple to get this. Because this dataset contains information on particular
people and their health issues, HIPAA may be a concern. To ensure legal compliance,
procedures must be followed exactly. As stated in the original disclosures provided at the time
of the survey, Heart Matters must also get the respondent's consent to use the data they provided.
