Hello all,
Now I understand if you change the concept type after being used, you will probably damage the database. However, my question is
Is it OK to change a coded concept after being used. I am not saying I want to change it from coded to numerical, for example. What I mean is adding more concepts to the coded (parent) concept. For example: one coded concept might be the following
eat meals today?
The answer for this coded concepts is : “Yes”, “No”
Can I change this concept by adding another answer such as “unknown”
Yani,
You have to be careful when you modify concepts after the dictionary has been used to capture data. Although adding unknown as a coded answer is a good idea and you can probably make that change, changing other answers can be a problem. For example, changing an option list which looked like:
Color of eyes:
Brown
Blue
Other
To
Color of eyes:
Brown
Blue
Hazel
Other
Means that before you changed the answers HAZEL would have fallen into the Other category and after you changed it, would not.
That is why “other” is generally a bad concept to use for data collection (although it is fine for reporting). Also, At CIEL, we have sometimes changed a concept used as an answer (with N/A datatype) to a question with a coded datatype. This is also sometimes a problem for aggregating data as some people might record presence of Malaria by looking for Problem Added: Malaria and others might look for Malaria: YES.
This is great …
So my understanding is that you are referring to quality of reports and research using the current available data on the system. Great insight