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Data management and quality assurance for an International project: the Indo–US Cross‐National Dementia Epidemiology Study
Author(s) -
Pandav Rajesh,
Mehta Arun,
Belle Steven H.,
Martin Deborah E.,
Chandra Vijay,
Dodge Hiroko H.,
Ganguli Mary
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
international journal of geriatric psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.28
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1099-1166
pISSN - 0885-6230
DOI - 10.1002/gps.650
Subject(s) - epidemiology , quality assurance , dementia , medicine , medline , gerontology , political science , pathology , disease , external quality assessment , law
Background Data management and quality assurance play a vital but often neglected role in ensuring high quality research, particularly in collaborative and international studies. Objective A data management and quality assurance program was set up for a cross‐national epidemiological study of Alzheimer's disease, with centers in India and the United States. Methods The study involved (a) the development of instruments for the assessment of elderly illiterate Hindi‐speaking individuals; and (b) the use of those instruments to carry out an epidemiological study in a population‐based cohort of over 5000 persons. Responsibility for data management and quality assurance was shared between the two sites. A cooperative system was instituted for forms and edit development, data entry, checking, transmission, and further checking to ensure that quality data were available for timely analysis. A quality control software program (CHECKS) was written expressly for this project to ensure the highest possible level of data integrity. Conclusions This report addresses issues particularly relevant to data management and quality assurance at developing country sites, and to collaborations between sites in developed and developing countries. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.