BRFSS Data Timeline: Alabama Heart Health Study

By stephen.holmes4
  • Period: to

    Data Collection (Throughout the Year)

    Source: CDC's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS)
    Method: Health-related telephone surveys across all 50 states, DC, and 3 US territories
    Scope: 400,000+ adult interviews annually
    Data Type: Quantitative survey data (health behaviors, chronic conditions, preventive services)
    Personnel: CDC survey administrators and data collectors
  • Period: to

    Physical Data Transfer

    Reason: Business expansion to new location
    Method: Data and codebook copied to flash drive
    Transport: Physical delivery to new facility
    Security: Data physically transported by IT system administrator
    Personnel: IT system administrator
    Provenance Impact: Data moved through multiple physical locations and handlers

  • Database Migration (Early)

    Target System: New SQL database at expanded location
    Funding: New location received funding for SQL database infrastructure
    Action: Immediate import of CSV file into SQL database
    Format Change: CSV → SQL database tables
    Personnel: IT system administrator and database team

  • Data Extraction & Storage (End of the Year)

    Action: Data retrieved from BRFSS database
    Format: Converted to CSV format
    Storage: Saved on secure hard drive in locked room
    Subset: Alabama data with sampled risk factor columns
    Analysis: Initial review of medical care access issues in Alabama
    Personnel: Original facility data analysts

  • Data Loss Event (During Migration)

    Problem: Character encoding incompatibility
    Cause: CSV file contained characters unreadable by SQL database
    Result: Some data rows failed to import properly
    Impact: Import quantity did not match original CSV file
    Data Quality: Validity compromised due to incomplete dataset
    Discovery: Issue not immediately detected
  • Period: to

    Current State: Data Quality Assessment (To Present)

    Status: Missing data identified, seeking external consultation
    Challenge: Insufficient data for complete analysis
    Need: Identify and recover missing information
    Stakeholders: Client, internal analyst, external consultant (you)
    Next Steps: Data validation, gap analysis, and potential re-extraction from source

  • New Analysis Request

    Personnel: Newly hired data analyst
    Task: Re-review master dataset to identify top 3 health concerns for healthy hearts
    Objective: Determine focus areas for new facility operations
    Discovery: Data analyst identified discrepancy between original and imported data