Making Life Easy Using Epi Info:

An Introduction
Ali Rowhani-Rahbar, MD, MPH, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar
Pediatric Infectious Diseases

What is Epi Info?

A free public domain software package developed

by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
for the global community of medical and public
health professionals.
It can be used to rapidly:
develop an electronic data entry form
enter data into this form
analyze data entered into this form or imported
from other software packages

Past, Present, and Future

First version: Epi Info 1 (MS-DOS)

Released 1985
Latest version: Epi Info 3.5.1
Released 2008
Earlier this year, Epi Info became an open source
software.
The next version (Epi Info 7) is currently being
developed at the CDCs National Center for Public
Health Informatics.

Worldwide use

A study conducted in 2003 documented at least 1

million downloads in at least 180 countries.
Epi Info has been translated to several languages
by different institutions and individuals around the
world. Examples include:
Spanish
Italian
Russian

Epi Info vs. other software packages

Epi Info has not been designed to replace:

Professional data management software
packages such as:
Microsoft Access
FileMaker Pro
Professional data analysis software packages
such as:
SAS
Stata
R

Advantages of Epi Info

Free
User-friendly
Point-and-click
All-in-one software
Design a data entry
form, enter data, and
analyze data
Time efficient
Very useful for outbreak
investigations

Main applications in Epi Info

We will discuss these applications today:

Make View
For designing an electronic data entry form
which automatically creates a data table
Enter Data
For entering data into the designed electronic
data entry form
Analyze Data
For conducting a relatively wide range of
statistical analysis of the data

Other applications in Epi Info

We will not discuss these applications today:

Create Maps (Epi Map)
For creating Geographic Information System
(GIS) maps and overlaying survey data on to
them
Create Reports (Epi Report)
For presenting results in a professional format
NutStat
A nutrition anthropometry program for
calculating BMI and growth Z scores/percentiles

Make View

Make View

View is an electronic data entry form that you

design based on a questionnaire used for primary
data collection.
Each view has a corresponding data table in the
background. No spreadsheet is involved.
There are 17 field (i.e., variable) types that you can
choose from (Text, Number, Date, Time, Check Box,
Yes/No, Option, etc.)
You can also add check codes and skip patterns to
your view all by point-and-click.

What is a check code?

Check codes are rules and restrictions that you add

to your view in order to improve the accuracy or
efficiency of the data entry process. Examples
include:
Making data entry for a particular variable
required
Defining a range for a particular variable
Making a variable Read Only

Create the view here

Define a new field (variable) by

right-clicking on the view

Create a skip
pattern

Add a check
code

An example of a skip pattern

An example of a view with

fields grouped together
and color-coded
Source: Epi Info tutorial
Rhodococcal Infection After Open-Heart Surgery
Based on a hospital outbreak investigation
conducted by an EIS officer. The report was
published in the New England Journal of Medicine
(New Engl J Med 1991;324:104-9).

Enter Data

Enter Data

You can easily:

enter data in the view that you have designed
control the order of data entry process
navigate through different records
find a particular or a group of records according to
a criterion that you define

Analyze Data

Import/Export Data

You can import data generated in some other

software packages
Text, Excel, dBASE, Access
You can export data suitable for use in some other
software packages
Text, Excel, dBASE, Access

Data manipulation

You can perform a relatively wide range of

common data manipulation procedures such as:
Sorting data on a specific variable
Recoding categories of a variable
Defining a new variable
You can also merge records in one data table with
those in another data table using a key (i.e.,
common) variable.

Statistical analysis (1)

Univariable analysis
Measures of central tendency and dispersion
Mean, median, mode, quartiles, standard deviation,
etc.
Bivariable analysis
Chi-square and Fishers exact test
t test and the analysis of variance (ANOVA)
Odds ratio
Risk ratio
Risk difference

Statistical analysis (2)

Multivariable analysis
Linear regression
Logistic regression
Unconditional and conditional
Survival analysis
Kaplan-Meier
Cox proportional hazard regression
You can create dummy variables and interaction
terms all by point-and-click
Complex sample survey analysis

Analysis Output
Commands Tree

Program Editor

An Example
Cross-tabulation of smoking
and case/control status

Graphics
Two Examples

A Kaplan-Meier
Survival Curve

A Scatterplot

Some Useful Websites

CDC (http://www.cdc.gov/epiinfo)

User forum (http://cms.myepi.info)

North Carolina Center for Public Health

Preparedness (Internet-based training)

Thank you!
Feel free to send an e-mail
with any questions to:
rowhani@stanford.edu