Population and Health Data Manager

描述（由申请人提供）：本提案寻求资助，以开发一个管理人口和健康数据的综合系统。该软件将利用元数据标准、计算机技术和商业信息系统的最新进展。人口与健康数据管理器（PHDM）将帮助研究人员(1)整合来自不同时期、地点和来源的数据，(2)重新格式化复杂的数据结构以供分析；（三）进行简单的描述性统计，用于诊断和可行性分析；(4)导出变量和案例的子集，格式适用于任何统计软件包的分析。该系统将管理任何类型的人口和健康数据，包括分层横截面微数据、纵向数据和小区域汇总文件。自从40年前第一个统计软件包问世以来，用于检索和操作数据的技术几乎没有改变。只要研究人员使用简单的小型调查，一次只使用一个数据源，旧技术就能充分发挥作用。然而，近年来，人口和卫生数据的规模和复杂性迅速扩大。许多源包含多个层次结构，通常包括纵向维度。研究人员越来越多地合并来自不同来源的数据来进行分析。此外，随着来自世界各地的大型行政数据集和高密度人口普查微数据样本的发布，可用数据资源的规模正在以前所未有的速度扩大。依赖过时的数据管理工具给研究界带来了沉重的成本。PHDM允许分析师在没有专业编程人员帮助的情况下操纵数据，从而降低了研究成本。作为国家医学和行为研究的管理者，这个项目与NIH的中心任务直接相关：PHDM将创造工具来推进关于公共卫生和人口动态的基础知识。这些工具将推动有关人口增长和流动、生育率、死亡率和结婚率以及人口行为的经济和社会关联的健康相关研究。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal seeks funding to develop an integrated system for managing population and health data. The software will exploit recent advances in metadata standards, computer technology, and business information systems. The Population and Health Data Manager (PHDM) will help researchers (1) to integrate data from different periods, places, and sources, (2) to reformat complex data structures for analysis; (3) to generate simple descriptive statistics for diagnostic purposes and feasibility analyses; and (4) to export subsets of variables and cases in formats suitable for analysis in any statistical package. The system will manage population and health data of any type, including hierarchical cross-sectional microdata, longitudinal data, and small-area summary files. The technology used for retrieving and manipulating data has remained virtually unchanged since the first statistical packages were introduced almost four decades ago. As long as researchers used simple small surveys and employed only one data source at a time, the old technology worked adequately. In recent years, however, the scale and complexity of population and health data has expanded rapidly. Many sources incorporate multiple levels of hierarchy, often including a longitudinal dimension. Researchers are increasingly merging data from different sources to carry out their analyses. Moreover, the scale of available data resources is expanding at an unprecedented pace with the release of large administrative datasets and high-density census microdata samples from around the world. Reliance on antiquated data management tools imposes heavy costs on the research community. The PHDM will reduce the costs of research by allowing analysts to manipulate data without the assistance of professional programming staff. This project is directly relevant to the central mission of the NIH as the steward of medical and behavioral research for the nation: the PHDM will create tools to advance fundamental knowledge about public health and human population dynamics. These tools will advance health-related research on population growth and movement, fertility, mortality, and nuptiality, as well as the economic and social correlates of demographic behavior.