This unit is made up of two functional units, the Epidemiological Data Centre (EDC) and the accredited Research Data Centre (RDC). In this unit, the epidemiological data collected in the RKI health monitoring surveys is compiled into databases and prepared for scientific analysis.

Tasks

The EDC is responsible for the data management and for validating and assuring the quality of the survey data.

To this end, parallel to data collection, data is continuously checked for possible examiner or equipment effects. In addition, the second recording of a portion of the collected questionnaires serves to check the quality of data entry. In the EDC, the survey data is checked for consistency, completeness, uniqueness and plausibility, new variables are generated, and all data preparation steps are documented with notes for the analysts.

The RDC manages and publishes the checked and edited data collected in the RKI health surveys in the form of Public Use Files and of extended data files. In addition, the RDC deals with specific statistical issues, primarily the creation of sampling weights.

The Statistics working group for the entire department is also attached to this unit. Amongst other tasks, it provides statistical consulting for the department and prepares notes on the statistical analysis of the survey data.