"Data type" is what we use to categorize data based on the kind of information that it covers and the way the data are collected.
Administrative data
Data from the records maintained by agencies, institutions, commercial entities and governments, where the records are used for administrative purposes or for providing services. Examples include hospital and other health facility data, claims data, occupational injuries data, and police data.
Census
Data from a complete count of a specified population or entity; may include information about behavior, opinions or characteristics based on responses to questions.
Demographic surveillance
Data from a system to monitor vital events and migration in a specific population over time (generally subnational). Differs from vital registration in that it may include other data points or data collection methods such as surveys.
Disease registry
Data from a centralized source that gathers information on patients with a specific diagnosis, condition or procedure. Examples include cancer, renal, stroke, and congenital anomalies registries.
Environmental monitoring
Data from measurement systems that capture information about the climate and the environment.
Epi surveillance
Data from systems designed to continuously collect, analyze and distribute public health data. Common types:
- Passive surveillance: Health care practitioners are required to report specific diseases or health-related events, e.g. case notifications
- Active surveillance: Occurs when a system or public heath practitioners, using a standard case definition and a variety of means (from clinical record reviews to community surveys), actively search for cases of a disease in a population. May be performed after disease outbreaks
- Sentinel surveillance: A single site or small network of facilities is used to monitor a specific community/population
Estimate
Standalone estimates that may be the underlying datasets from a publication or that may have been created for their own sake. Includes IHME results. Unlike reports, estimates contain little or no narrative.
Event data
Data about an event or series of events (human and/or environmental) that occur within a specified time period. Sources typically include the media, news releases from other types of organizations, conflict databases, and more.
Financial record
Data from the formal records of the financial activities of an entity (or person).
Geospatial data
Data with geographic positioning information, including vector data, raster data, geographic reference codes, and gazetteers.
Legislation
Data about laws or rules enacted by governing bodies – or the text of the laws themselves. Also includes government regulations.
Modeled data
Raw input data that have been transformed by IHME modelers through various preparation processes, such as age- and sex-splitting.
Report
Publications that include estimates or aggregate data from multiple sources (e.g., statistical yearbooks and bulletins). Reports also contain, unlike standalone estimates, at least some narrative explaining the data – the source of the data or what they mean or both. Reports may be published serially, but are not generally peer-reviewed.
Scientific literature
Articles and papers containing health-related data that are published in peer-reviewed journals (print, CD, or online).
Survey
Data about behavior, opinions or characteristics based on responses to questions from a sample of a specified population or entity.
Vital registration
Data from a system that registers vital events in a population, including births, stillbirths, deaths, marriages and divorces – a specific type of administrative data.
