Data Analysis: A Workshop for Title II Development Program Managers
November 2000, Nairobi, Kenya

Agenda

Presentations

Overview of Data Analysis

• Difference between the population and the sample
  
• Defining indicators
  
• Sources of error in data collection
  
• Understanding data cleaning
  
• Differences between various types of missing data

Understanding Variables

• What is a variable?
  
• Different types of variables
  
• Choosing variable type when collecting data

Measures of Central Tendency and Variability

• Mean, median, and mode
  
• Standard deviation, range, IQ range
  
• Calculate measures of central tendency and variability

Descriptive Statistics

• What are descriptive statistics?
  
• Frequency
  
• Cross Tabulation

Cleaning Data and Missing Values

• Sources of mistakes
  
• Out of range data, outliers, inconsistencies between related variables
  
• Addressing missing values

Defining New Variables

• Rationale
  
• Categorizing continuous variables
  
• Re-categorizing categorical or ordinal variables
• Changing units on continuous variables
  
• Calculating new variables
  
• Tools for defining new variables

Merging, Manipulating, and Managing Files

• What is file management?
  
• Sorting data
  
• Merging data files
  
• Splitting files
  
• Transferring files between software programs

Understanding Z-Scores

• What are z-scores?
  
• Cutoff values for mild, moderate and severe malnutrition
  
• Calculating a z-score given a child's age, sex and height

Calculating Stunting Indicators Using Epi Info

• Understanding the purpose of z-score analysis for malnutrition indicators
  
• Performing z-score analysis using Epi Info's EpiNut program
  
• Interpreting z-scores
  
• Producing graphs of z-score distributions
  
• Exporting results for use with other software (SPSS, Excel)

Understanding Weighted Means

• Understanding the concept and purpose of weighted means
  
• Calculating simple weighted means

Weighted Yield Gap

• Converting units, recoding, and summing
  
• Calculating weighted average yield gap

Analysis of Nutrition Indicators

• Calculating an exclusive breastfeeding indicator
  
• Calculating complementary feeding indicators

Inferential Statistics

• Differentiating between descriptive statistics and inferential statistics
  
• Why perform inferential statistics?
  
• Different types of statistical tests
  
• Testing hypotheses
  
• Determining relationships

Exercises and Appendices