Practical skills for IDI data analysis

Are you planning some analysis using the Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI)? If you have never used the IDI before or you need a ‘refresher’ this course is for you. This is a hands-on course teaching some basic skills required to undertake data analysis in the IDI. Students will work within a real Datalab environment using real IDI data, with all induction processes for this completed as part of the course.

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Topics covered

In this course, we will cover the following:

• Induction and confidentiality training with StatsNZ
• Logging in and navigating the IDI environment
• How to link tables together
• How to choose and create a base population
• Adding demographic and other information to your population
• Identifying missing data in the IDI
• Removing people from the population due to death or out-migration
• Finding and using metadata
• Preparing data for output
• Using the output checking tool and submitting an output

Style of course

Computer lab – Hands-on course combining practical exercises and discussion.

Who should attend?

Researchers and analysts who are planning to use IDI data in the Datalab environment. The course covers basic skills and is best suited to those with no or very little IDI experience. This is a hands-on course and is only suitable for people who will be working directly with IDI data. Supervisors, managers, and others who will not be working directly with IDI data will get more benefit from our theory-based course VHIN Introduction to Research in the IDI.

During this three-day course, you will also undertake induction and confidentiality training with Stats NZ to enable you to safely access the IDI environment and release results from the IDI.

Draft timetable

Prerequisites

Please contact the convenor if you are unsure whether you meet the prerequisites.

Course participants must complete the VHIN Introduction to Research in the IDI course prior to enrolling. We believe that a solid understanding of IDI structure, processes, and Māori data sovereignty is essential for working safely with IDI data. This material is covered in the one-day introductory course. It is not covered in the practical course due to time constraints. If you have completed the introductory course in a previous year that is sufficient.

Course participants must have some experience with statistical programming (writing code) prior to enrolling. The minimum level required is being able to write code to perform basic tasks such as selecting and filtering data, creating new variables, and creating a dataset. This experience could be in R, SAS, Stata, SQL or similar programs. Experience with point-and-click analysis only is not sufficient.

This course requires some basic programming in SQL but prior SQL experience is not required. Participants who are new to SQL will be sent some short introductory SQL exercises to complete prior to the course.

Teaching staff

• Dr Sheree Gibb is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Public Health, University of Otago Wellington. She has been working with IDI data for 12 years and is one of NZ’s leading experts in the use of IDI data for health and social research.
• Sharan Ram is a final-year PhD candidate in research epidemiology at the Centre for Public Health Research, Massey University. He has been working with the IDI since 2020.

Location

This course will be held in-person at the Stats NZ Datalab, 8 Willis St, Wellington. Please report to the main reception upon arrival.

Course cost and registration

$1,125 early bird, $1,500 after Thursday 19 December 2024.

A 50% discount is available to full-time students, those unwaged and University of Otago staff.

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