Related Documents

• Program Categories
• Information Table that describes where the data was first obtained
• Master Excel file of the Social & Recreation Programs Database

* Note: These documents are available upon request.

Overview

This document describes the Social & Recreation Programs Database. There are two main files that contain the information from the Social Programs Database: the master Excel file containing all of the original information, and an abbreviated SAS file that contains only the variables that lend themselves easily to statistical analysis.

The master Excel file of this database is a collection of social, recreation, and other programs that were available to the communities of Winnipeg during the year 2000 (the database also contains some programs from 1999 and 2001, but these years are not complete). The database was developed at MCHP as part of Dr. Les Roos’ CPHI project to objectively measure how social programs might affect the health of people living in the community where the program occurred.

Development of the Social & Recreation Programs Database (Excel version)

The construction of the Social & Recreation Programs Database was a result of work by three main people:

• Shirley Forsyth
  • created the data structure of the Programs Database
  • contacted organizations around Winnipeg to obtain their existing lists of programs
  • managed communication with data owners
  • established data-sharing agreements.

• Betty Taras
  • phoned program managers and organizations to gather or clarify information, and
  • entered any paper-based information, or information not recorded in a central list, into Excel spreadsheets.

• Jen Bodnarchuk
  • organized and formatted all incoming electronic data, or data entered by Betty, to fit the data structure
  • checked for and deleted duplicate programs in the master Excel file
  • maintained a table of information describing all of the organizations that contributed to the database
  • wrote a SAS program to convert the Excel information to SAS.

Maintenance and Updating of the Social & Recreation Programs Database (Excel version)

The Excel database was maintained and updated in somewhat its current form from May 2001 (when Jen Bodnarchuk began working on it) until June 2002 (when the last new programs were added). The database was also cleaned more thoroughly in preparation for creating the SAS file in September 2002. The database will not be updated or cleaned again until new programs are entered.

Notes for Using the Social & Recreation Programs Database

Users of this database should be aware that not all areas of Winnipeg are equally represented in the Database. Therefore, when comparisons are made across the city, certain programs should be removed from the database to prevent overrepresentation of some areas. Specifically, it is recommended to remove all programs with ID numbers prefixed by the letters C, CW, R, and S.

Description of Variables in the Social & Recreation Programs Database (SAS version)

The database master file is an Excel spreadsheet that lists information in 86 columns for 9,572 programs (as of September 2002), and although the spreadsheet is huge, many programs do not have information in all fields. Much of the information in the Excel spreadsheet is designed so that it has the potential to be used as a public, citywide collection of all the programs available in Winnipeg. Partly for this reason, not all of the fields in the spreadsheet were easily converted to a SAS data set; the SAS data set contains 56 variables for all 9,572 programs/observations.

Thirty variables available in the Excel Version of the Social & Recreation Programs Database were not included in the SAS Version for various reasons. Some variables were combined to form one SAS variable; others were left out entirely because of inconsistent recording of information, irrelevant data for statistical analysis, or fields not actually containing any data. This information is available upon request.