Sub-series details: CRDA/24/DS/1992

The datasets in this sub-series were transferred from the Department of Health on a CD-ROM which was received by NDAD on 1 October 1999.

This sub-series holds public health data for 1991. Further information about the Public Health Common Datasets (PHCDS) is provided in the Series Catalogue and Dataset Documentation. The sub-series consists of indicators which are divided into subject headings such as Demography, Fertility and Mortality. The sub-series consists of 6 datasets comprising a total of 150 tables. Data is arranged by NHS administrative areas, namely District Health Authorities (DHAs), Family Health Service Authorities (FHSAs). National and Regional data is replicated for comparison purposes thus the first batch of lines in the 2 'equivalent' spreadsheets (eg a1 and fa1) is the same.

• The District Health Authority mergers as on April 1991 are incorporated
• The Standardised mortality ratios (SMRs) for all causes have been moved from indicator C5 to indicator C3A.

• Health-related variables (such as smoking) from the General Household Survey
• Trends in selected indicators for the period 1984-91.

A detailed description of the indicators can be seen in the data definitions and user guide in the Dataset Documentation Catalogue, see CRDA/24/DD/1/3.

The data which comprise CRDA/24/DS/1992 were transferred to NDAD in the form of Symphony (WR1) spreadsheet files. Copies of the Symphony files were processed using Microsoft Excel 97 and Microsoft Visual Basic (under Windows 95 / 98) and converted to comma-separated (CSV) format. All headings and metadata present in the original spreadsheets were removed before converting the files to CSV, along with blank rows and columns which had been included in the spreadsheets for layout purposes.

Some original spreadsheets contain formatting of numeric fields, for example fields are set to display as integers when they actually hold real numbers. Fields with many figures after the decimal point are displayed with just 2 figures after the decimal point. In order to preserve the more detailed figures, the formatting of numeric fields was set to Microsoft Excel General format before converting the files to CSV. However, it must be assumed that original users of the spreadsheets would have seen the data as it had been originally formatted. Although some files contain fields that have many decimal places, users are advised that NDAD recommends that all data in the PHCDS is not quoted at more than two decimal places. This is because fields are not formatted with more than two decimal places in the original spreadsheet files. NDAD assumes that this is because the data creators considered the data to be accurate to, at most, two decimal places.

The PHCDS in its original format does not use specific field names as such: generally, spreadsheet packages do not require data to be held within named fields. The indicators within PHCDS do have original names which have been preserved but these equate to the table name within NDAD. In other words the heading of each spreadsheet equates to the title of the indicator and forms the title of the table in NDAD. To identify fields within a table, NDAD has allocated names sequentially; however to differentiate between tables that hold data relating to DHAs and the other 'type' of tables which hold data relating to FHSAs, the first 2 fields have been named D_CODE or F_CODE (depending on whether the table covers DHAs or FHSAs) and AREA (for the name of the area); subsequent field names run sequentially ie the next field is named F3, then F4 etc. The column headings in the spreadsheet, supplemented at times by information from the 'Data definition and user guide', form the basis of the field descriptions. In a number of the original files (namely the CRDA/24/DS/1992/6 tables and the CRDA/24/DS/1992/3/2 tables covering indicator C3C), the data for each area is split over two lines. A Visual Basic module was written to move the figures so that there is one line per area.

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The language of the materials is .

The User Guide for the 1992 PHCDS has been transferred to NDAD, reference CRDA/24/DD/1/3, and can be consulted via the Dataset Documentation Catalogue . The User Guide provides data definitions for the indicators and is a user guide for the original computer files. Information from the metadata contained in the original spreadsheet files and the 1992 User Guide has been used in compiling the Table catalogues in the individual datasets.

The data has been divided into six datasets by topic. For access to these datasets, see Links to dataset catalogues.

The data is available for District Health Authorities (DHAs), Family Health Service Authorities (FHSAs), NHS Regions and nationally for England and Wales. However this does not apply to all tables; for instance the 'Data definitions and user guide for computer files (baseline data)' (see the Dataset Documentation Catalogue, reference CRDA/24/DD/1/3/3) explains that "The majority of the national indicators are included, although in some cases data are only available to regional level. For those indicators not included, sub-national data are unavailable or not available in a form suitable for incorporation into the current data set". So, whereas most tables in CRDA/24/DS/1992/5 (The Health of the Nation Baseline data) contain 202 records (DHAs) or 106 records (FHSAs) , a number of tables hold far fewer records (hona5b6 16 records, hona10 17, fhona5b6 16, fhona10 17, fhonb2 16; fhonb3 16; fhond3 16 records).

In CRDA/24/DS/1992/5, the data in the tables covering indicators A8 and A9 data are only available to regional level and the regional data relates to the Standard Regions used by ONS for statistical purposes. These Standard Regions (based on County boundaries which are not in general co-terminous with Health Authority areas; see the Documentation Catalogue, reference CRDA/24/DD/1/3/3) have not been encoded at all in the tables and therefore the 4 tables (CRDA/24/DS/1992/5/6-7 (hona8 and hona9), CRDA/24/DS/1992/5/23-24 (fhona8 and fhona8)) have not been included in the relationships set up by NDAD between the tables (to allow users to link data in similar tables within a dataset via the code for the area).

Details of the sources which were used to produce the Public Health Common data files and how the data was checked by OPCS are given in the Series Catalogue.

No discrepancies were noted in the original spreadsheet files as compared to the expected contents as described in the User Guide for the 1992 PHCDS, see the Dataset Documentation Catalogue. However, it was noted that a small number of DHAs had 2 codes used across the 1992 data. For instance in the 1st, 2nd and 4th datasets (CRDA/24/DS/1992/1,2,4), 'Liverpool' is coded as N20 and Leeds as B74 whereas in the 5th and 6th datasets (CRDA/24/DS/1992/5,6), Liverpool is N21 and Leeds is B61. In the 3rd dataset (CRDA/24/DS/1992/3), Liverpool is N20 and Leeds is B74 except in the tables relating to indicator C3C (ie tables c3cp01 - c3cp11). Other DHAs to which this apparent anomaly applies include 'Bloomsbury & Islington' and 'North East Warwickshire'. This difference in coding affects the relevant records when linking tables. The linking of tables is also affected by the code for 'ENGLAND' being missing in tables CRDA/24/DS/1992/2/10-13 (b10, b11, b12, b13). In all other tables ENGLAND is coded as 'O00' (with only 'ENGLAND AND WALES' being uncoded).

Spot checks were carried out to compare the transformed data against the data in the original Symphony files. These included comparing the values of specific fields and checking that the totals of numeric fields were the same. In addition, each table was checked to ensure that the overall number of records and fields remained the same. No discrepancies were detected between the original and transformed data. The only differences found resulted from rounding and/or floating point representation, particularly for example where the original numbers had 12 figures after the decimal point. The transformed data is restricted to the level of accuracy provided by the general format in Excel (generally 8 figures after the decimal point).

Dataset catalogues provide more detailed information about individual datasets, and are currently available for the following dataset(s):