NURS 8310 Week 2 Assignment Strengths and Limitations of Secondary Data Sources

NURS 8310 Week 2 Assignment

Strengths and Limitations of Secondary Data Sources

Student Name

Walden University

NURS-8310

Professor Name

Date

Strengths and Limitations of Secondary Data Sources

Population health is important in healthcare these days, especially for those trying to improve the health of many people. Problems of long-term disease, epidemic disease, and disparities in health services are still the major challenges. To handle these problems, decision-making and policy should mainly rely on data (Areco et al., 2021). Secondary data makes health investigations easy for the researchers as it does not require primary data collection by them. This assignment is intended to explain a prevalent population health problem and review three secondary sources of data. It will provide what it should consider when analyzing the association, verify the data sets’ reliability, and present the problems that one might face while using data from literature.

Identifying the Population Health Problem

The chosen population health problem is chronic lung disease, concentrating specifically on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The breathing difficulty of COPD is due to obstruction of the airways, typically as a result of long-term exposure to cigarette smoke and other noxious gases. For a lot of people, it kills, fills hospitals, and drives up healthcare costs. Elderly individuals and poor individuals are greatly affected in most instances. Public health researchers are worried about the disease (Villegas et al., 2021). Before making effective plans, there is a need to understand how common the condition is, what puts people at risk for it, and the problems in healthcare.

Identifying Relevant Variables

According to the level of relevance, reliability, and accessibility, three sources of secondary data were chosen to obtain the prevalence and the determining factors of COPD.

• BRFSS

The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) is conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (Powers et al., 2024). BRFSS is one of the key sentinel health monitoring systems in the United States. The information is collected through annual surveys of residents of all the states (Powers et al., 2024). The BRFSS includes numerous questions about how people care for their health, any health problems they might have, and what steps they take to remain healthy.

• GHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) is responsible for the Global Health Observatory (GHO). The GHO collects health data from dozens of countries and anchors it all in one place (Garmany & Terzic, 2024). It collects data on diseases in terms of how often people contract them, what causes them, and what health services are available, as well as the oral health of the population. GHO is now the primary resource to view COPD globally.

• ICPSR

A wide range of social science and health topic areas are captured in the data archived by the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) (Bratt, 2023). Epidemiology utilizes cohort studies and cross-sectional studies to provide useful data on chronic diseases, risk factors, social status, the status of health care service, and availability. ICPSR adds value to in-depth research by including thorough documentation and data-info tools.

Assessing the Validity of Each Data Set

The selected datasets are believed to be reliable for studies in the public health sector.

• CDC BRFSS

The CDC BRFSS is used in countless peer-reviewed papers and by policymakers who use the data from the CDC BRFSS. Instead, standardized questionnaires and a large sample size increase the reliability not just within the group, but also in terms of generalizability to the larger society (Powers et al., 2024).

• WHO GHO

The WHO GHO sources its data from national health ministries and is based on internationally agreed-upon reporting standards (Garmany & Terzic, 2024). As a result, data is able to be validated, contrasted, and analyzed from global health trends.

• ICPSR

While ICPSR data are not homogeneous, they are typically well-documented, peer-reviewed, and accompanied by metadata, meaning transparent (Bratt, 2023). A large number of ICPSR studies have been validated and published in high-impact-factor academic journals.

Such sources enable scientists to reach sound and robust conclusions about health.

Challenges in Using Secondary Data

Despite the numerous benefits, working with secondary data has its challenges:

• Secondary data may not be complete in terms of the variables that the researcher wanted (Baldwin et al., 2022). For example, an individual study may not have specific clinical measures of lung function or fail to report separate exposure data by region.
• Limited use special permissions or institutional access may apply to ICPSR. Data Collections may restrict or prohibit the use of these data for secondary analysis (Bratt, 2023). Availability of individual-level data may be limited due to ethical and privacy issues.
• Data that were collected at different times or places cannot be directly compared because the definitions, the ways of sampling, and the health care provided might have differed.
• People’s responses to BRFSS surveys could be influenced by recall bias or social desirability, leading to misreporting of smoking behaviors (Powers et al., 2024).

The recognition of these limitations is important in planning a study that truly addresses a health problem and does not generate false findings.

Conclusion

Reviewing population health, such as chronic lung disease, is characterized by secondary data analysis. Data from the CDC BRFSS, WHO GHO, and ICPSR can be used to examine how many people are suffering from a given disease, its causes, and effects. Some issues do arise, such as limited accessibility and variations in data quality, but then again, those things often can be managed with some foresight and careful analysis. In the era of rapid and low-cost health research, secondary data will be essential to shape public health responses, improve health outcomes, and increase scientific understanding.

Ace your NURS 8310 Week 4 Assignment with professional tutoring support on Epidemiologic Study Designs. Order assistance today!