Applied analysis-Public Health Nurse- Classmate Response (1): Topic 6 DQ 1
Topic 6 DQ 1-QUESTION- Given the limited amount of statistical calculations required by some public health positions, explain why it is important for you to know how to utilize appropriate software to analyze public health data. Support your ideas with reasons, facts, and examples
Classmate (Wanda)Response
While there may be limited statistical calculations that are required some public health positions, there is a need to understand a large amount of data. Public health decisions are made by the output performed by statistical software. As a public health leader, having an understanding of the software process is important when determining your company/study budget, what data you are trying to provide and whom will be receiving the output of your data. The research data, one’s technological expertise, and one’s own personal preferences will play a role in which software will work best (Sewell, 2019).
Public health and all fields of science rely heavily on computers. It is almost impossible understand research without having even a basic knowledge of statistics. In order to do that, it is important to have some level of understanding of statistical software. For example, while there are many types of software out there, SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) has become a very important type of software used in statistical analysis. This software can perform the simplest analysis to the more complex (Arkkelin, 2014).
References:
Arkkelin, D. (2014). Using SPSS to understand research and data analysis. Retrieved from https://scholar.valpo.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=psych_oer
Sewell, A. (2019). Stata vs. R vs. SPSS for Data Analysis. Retrieved from http://publish.illinois.edu/commonsknowledge/2019/12/05/stata-vs-r-vs-spss-for-data-analysis/
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Solution
Classmate (Wanda) Response
I agree with you that data is essential in conducting valid and effective public health programs. Public health practitioners can therefore rely on data to evaluate the impact of the various programs they implement. Public health professionals can also rely on data to determine the ideal public health interventions for a given community and to monitor the progress of various implemented interventions. Public health practitioners can also rely on data to determine the populations that should be targeted with specific interventions, evaluate the barriers of care in given communities and influence public policy in different ways (Pastorino et al., 2019).
I also agree with you that SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) is one of the most effective tools that public health practitioners can rely on for statistical analysis and process various types of data that they can utilize to inform public interventions. SPSS is, therefore, an important data analysis tool in public health because it can perform highly complex data manipulation and analysis through simple instructions. In this regard, the SPSS software can extract data from any type of file and utilize such data to generate charts, tabulated reports, trends, and plots of distributions, complexity sequel analysis, and descriptive statistics (Masuadi et al., 2021). The different types of data produced by the SPSS program can therefore form the basis of public health programs understanding the public health needs and the necessary public health interventions required in a given community. As a statistical software, the SPSS will be beneficial to the public health discipline because of the ability of software to analyze both quantitative and qualitative data (Masuadi et al., 2021). Public health practitioners, therefore, need to rely on both qualitative and quantitative data to conduct various public health interventions.
References
Masuadi, E., Mohamud, M., Almutairi, M., Alsunaidi, A., Alswayed, A. K., & Aldhafeeri, O. F. (2021). Trends in the Usage of Statistical Software and Their Associated Study Designs in Health Sciences Research: A Bibliometric Analysis. Cureus. Published. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.12639
Pastorino, R., de Vito, C., Migliara, G., Glocker, K., Binenbaum, I., Ricciardi, W., & Boccia, S. (2019). Benefits and challenges of Big Data in healthcare: an overview of the European initiatives. European Journal of Public Health, 29(Supplement_3), 23–27. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckz168