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Instructions for using the
Online Health Index Calculation Software
- Construct data sets
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The data must be submitted as an Excel file saved in a Comma
Delimited Format (*.csv extension).
·
All 46 variables specified in the codebook must be present for
each record. If the value for
a particular variable is missing or un-scored, the field should either be
empty or a “.” placed in the field. The SAS headings for these
variables are available at
http://global.sbs.ohio-state.edu/cd-contents/SAS-Column-Headinigs.doc
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The first line of the file must list the variable names, and
subsequent lines must be the records for individual skeletons.
·
An example of a file file that meets the
criteria can be downloaded from http://global.sbs.ohio-state.edu/healthIndex/example2.csv.
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Note that the site ID (the first variable) must be unique and
identical for all records pertaining to the site. The file may contain data for
multiple sites but each ID must, of course, be different. For an example, see the file
indicated above.
·
The program will not run unless the site includes at least some individuals
throughout the range of ages, including young juveniles, adolescents,
young adults and old adults.
- Running the Program
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Go to the link http://global.sbs.ohio-state.edu/healthIndex
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Browse and select the file constructed from step 1.
·
Click Upload.
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In case of errors, the program will report the line number in the
file at which the error occurred.
For example, the number of variables for that record may not equal
46.
- Interpreting the Results
If Step 2 was successful, the
program provides several statistics in addition to the health Index
Calculated:-
3.1
Age Categories
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For each site present in the
csv file, the program prints the number of cases
belonging to each of the age categories 0-4, 5-9, 10-14, 15-24, 25-34,
35-44 and 45+.
·
If for any of these categories the number of cases falls below 1,
the health Index calculation cannot be performed for that site. This is
indicated by a red row in the category table.
·
If the number of cases in a particular age category is from 2 and
4, the row will be yellow, indicating the results should be interpreted
with caution.
·
If there are 5 or more cases for a category, the corresponding row
will be green. The software proceeds to calculate the health Index so
long as there are no red rows for a site.
3.2
Frequency of variables scored.
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This section indicates the frequency of variables that are scored
for each site.
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Each Site has a separate column.
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The number of IDs represents the total number of cases present in
the data set.
3.3
Data Check.
The data check performs basic
statistical calculations on numeric data, shows the frequency of
non-numeric data, and the mean of numeric data across all cases in the data
set (Unlike 3.2, it Does not distinguish on the basis of sites).
3.4
Results
The
output will have the following column headings:
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Site
|
Nr
|
QALY
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%
of max
|
Stature
|
Hypoplasias
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Anemia
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Dental
|
Infections
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DJD
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Trauma
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Person-yrs
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where the first variable shows site ID and the second the
sequence number for the site (this will be “1” if data for
only one sites was submitted).
QALY refers to “quality adjusted life years”, a
concept discussed in chapter 3 of The
Backbone of History. % of
max (QALY out of 26.4 years) is the value for the health index. The next 7 columns show index
values for each component of the index. If data for a variable are
entirely lacking, the score given is -1.0. At least 5 of the 7 categories
must be scored for the index to be calculated, in which case the
categories are still weighted equally. The last column shows the number
of person-years of morbidity that form the basis for the health index,
and is a measure of sample size for the site.
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