LETTER TO EDITOR pISSN 0976 3325│eISSN 2229 6816 Open Access Article www.njcmindia.org

SUMMARY OF 3RD WORKSHOP ON BASIC & WITH EPI-INFO AT PGIMER, CHANDIGARH

Simmi Oberoi1, Vikram Kumar Gupta2

Sir, All the sessions were of average 1 hour duration followed by practical exercises of the same dura- We had the opportunity to attend the ‘3rd Work- tion and with thorough discussions. Any queries shop on Basic Epidemiology & Biostatistics’ or- from the participants were dealt with best ef- ganized by school of (including forts. In the first exercise, example of ‘’ department of epidemiology), PGIMER, Chandi- was quoted. garh. The workshop was of 10 working days from 9-19th December, 2014.1 A total of 30 partic- The USP of the course was workshop on univer- ipants attended it. Course fee was Rs 3000/- ex- sally freely available software by CDC, USA i.e., cluding the staying facility. Out of the 30 seats, Epi-Info. Presently software version 7.1.4 is seven were for local participants. Faculty mem- available.2 It works very comfortably on any bers and residents of community medicine and version. Sometime few sys- other departments came to attend it from all over tems requires installation of microsoft NET India. framework version 4 and above, which is also available for download.3 The graphical and The whole day activity was divided into three drawing making part requires ‘Microsoft Silver- sessions including before tea, after tea and post light’ extension which is again easily available.4 lunch. The topics included are listed as follows: Epi-Info is a great software. Epi-Info 7 User 1. Introduction to Epidemiology and Biostatistics 5 2. Type of Data and Data Presentation Guide is available as pdf file. The exercises re- 3. Measuring Health and Disease lated to it started on day 3 of workshop after ini- 4. Summarizing Data and Distribution tial introduction of the subject. Epi-Info has op- 5. Measure of Effect tion to create forms with variety of entry options. 6. Sample and Proportions After making the forms, one can save the format 7. Use of Routine Sources of Data for future use also. The software gives a unique 8. Comparing Two Means ID code to all the forms. Then data entry can be

9. Case Control Study done easily, but for increasing the speed of entry, 10. Comparing Two Proportions a person must do a couple of mini projects as 11. Cohort Study 12. Association Between Two Quantitative Varia- exercises. In classic analysis stage, new variables bles can be created easily e.g., creating a BMI variable 13. Survival Analysis if there is entry of height and weight in the 14. Sample Size Calculation proforma. Impressive graphs can be made easily 15. Intervention Study on giving the command e.g., Bar Diagram, Scat- 16. Sampling Methods ter Diagram. Linear regression can be applied 17. Bias without any difficulty. It can make a histogram

18. Confounding easily and entry of ranges and class intervals is 19. Causation very easy. There is also, options of import and 20. Screening export files as format (.mdb file) 21. Epi-Info Practical Analysis (Exercise 1 to 6) or excel format (.xls file). If sample size is high, multiple persons can do data entry on separate computers and later can

National Journal of Community Medicine│Volume 6│Issue 1│Jan – Mar 2015 Page 130

Open Access Journal │www.njcmindia.org pISSN 0976 3325│eISSN 2229 6816 arrange it as a single file with ‘merge’ command. If proforma is lengthy or time is short, again REFERENCES multiple persons can do data entry of separate 1. India News Calling: Latest News: INC-PGI Chandigarh; pages of proforma on separate computers and “3rd Workshop on Basic Epidemiology and Biostatistics” later can arrange it as a single file with ‘relate’ 9th-19th December, 2014. Available at: command. http://www.indianewscalling.com/news/20846-3rd- workshop-on-basic-epidemiology-and-biostatistics-9th- There are definitely certain advantages of Epi- 19th-december-2014.aspx. Accessed on Feb 15th, 2015. Info over other softwares. But obviously, it needs 2. Centers for disease control and prevention: Epi InfoTM. frequent practice and concentration. It is highly Available at: http://wwwn.cdc.gov/epiinfo/7/. Ac- recommended that such workshops must be or- cessed on Feb 15th, 2015. ganized in all the states/zones of India. Partici- 3. Microsoft Download Centre: Microsoft .NET Frame- pants after attending such workshop must work 4 (Web Installer). Available at: spread the knowledge wherever and whenever http://www.microsoft.com/en- in/download/details.aspx?id=17851. Accessed on Feb possible. 15th, 2015. 4. Silverlight Home Page: Get Microsoft Silverlight. Avail- able at: http://www.microsoft.com/getsilverlight/Get- 1 2 Simmi Oberoi , Vikram Kumar Gupta Started/Install/Default.aspx. Accessed on Feb 15th, Authors’ Affiliation: 1Asst Prof of Community Medi- 2015. cine, Government Medical College & Rajindra Hospi- 5. Epi Info 7 User Guide: Centers for Disease Control and tal, Patiala, Punjab; 2Asst Prof of Community Medi- Prevention (CDC). Available at: cine, Dayanand Medical College & Hospital, Ludhia- ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/software/epi_info/7/Epi_Info_ na, Punjab 7_User_Guide-V1.0_cleared.pdf. Accessed on Feb 15th, 201 Correspondence: Dr. Simmi Oberoi (E-mail: dr.simmi@ gmail.com)

National Journal of Community Medicine│Volume 6│Issue 1│Jan – Mar 2015 Page 131