Open data on Covid-19 in the Spanish autonomous communities: reutilization in spatial epidemiology studies

Salvador-Oliván, Jose-Antonio and Escolano-Utrilla, Severino Open data on Covid-19 in the Spanish autonomous communities: reutilization in spatial epidemiology studies. Profesional de la Información, 2022, vol. 31, n. 4. [Journal article (Unpaginated)]

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English abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for governments and health administrations at all levels to have an open data registry that facilitates decision-making in the planning and management of health resources and provides informa-tion to citizens on the evolution of the epidemic. The concept of “open data” includes the possibility of reutilization by third parties. Space and time are basic dimensions used to structure and interpret the data of the variables that refer to the health status of the people themselves. Hence, the main objective of this study is to evaluate whether the autonomous communities’ data files regarding Covid-19 are reusable to analyze the evolution of the disease in basic spatial and tempo-ral analysis units at the regional and national levels. To this end, open data files containing the number of diagnosed cases of Covid-19 distributed in basic health or administrative spatial units and temporal units were selected from the portals of the Spanish autonomous communities. The presence of infection-related, demographic, and temporal variables, as well as the download format and metadata, were mainly evaluated. Whether the structure of the files was homogeneous and adequate for the application of spatial analysis techniques was also analyzed. The results reveal a lack of standardization in the collection of data in both spatial and temporal units and an absence of, or ambiguity in, the meaning of the variables owing to a lack of metadata. An inadequate structure was also found in the files of seven autonomous communities, which would require subsequent processing of the data to enable their reuse and the application of analysis and spatial modeling techniques, both when carrying out global analyses and when comparing patterns of evolution between different regions

Spanish abstract

La pandemia por Covid-19 ha puesto de manifiesto la necesidad de los gobiernos y de las administraciones sanitarias de todos los niveles de disponer de un registro de datos abiertos que facilite la toma de decisiones en la planificación y gestión de recursos sanitarios y proporcione información a la ciudadanía sobre la evolución de la epidemia. El concepto de «datos abiertos» comprende la posibilidad de reutilización por terceros. Por otro lado, el espacio y el tiempo son dimensiones básicas para estructurar e interpretar los datos de las variables referidas propiamente al estado de salud de las personas. De aquí que el objetivo principal de este estudio es evaluar si los ficheros de datos de las Comunidades Autónomas sobre Covid-19 son reutilizables para analizar la evolución de la enfermedad en unidades de análisis espaciales y temporales básicas a nivel autonómico y de nación. Para ello, de los portales de las Comunidades Autónomas se seleccionaron los ficheros de datos abiertos que contenían el número de casos diagnosticados de Covid-19 distribuidos en unidades espaciales básicas sanitarias o administrativas y en unidades temporales. Se evaluó principalmente la presencia de variables relacionadas con la infección, demográficas y temporales, así como el formato de descarga y metadatos. Se analizó también si la estructura de los ficheros era homogénea y adecuada para aplicar técnicas de análisis espacial. Los resultados revelan falta de normalización en la recogida de datos tanto en unidades espaciales como temporales y ausencia o ambigüedad en el significado de las variables motivada por la falta de metadatos. También se ha constatado una estructura no adecuada en ficheros de siete Comunidades Autónomas, lo que requeriría un proceso posterior de los datos para poder reutilizarlos y aplicar técnicas de análisis y modelado espacial, tanto a la hora de llevar a cabo un análisis global como al comparar patrones de evolución entre distintas regiones.

Item type: Journal article (Unpaginated)
Keywords: Open data; Covid-19; Pandemics; Coronavirus; Reutilization of open data; Health information; Health data portals; Autonomous communities; Spain; Spatial epidemiology; Geolocation; Datos abiertos; Covid-19; Pandemias; Coronavirus; Reutilización de datos abiertos; Información de salud; Portales de datos de salud; Comunidades autónomas; España; Epidemiología espacial; Geolocalización
Subjects: B. Information use and sociology of information > BA. Use and impact of information.
B. Information use and sociology of information > BG. Information dissemination and diffusion.
I. Information treatment for information services > IM. Open data
Depositing user: Jose Antonio Salvador-Oliván
Date deposited: 11 Sep 2025 14:20
Last modified: 12 Sep 2025 09:42
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10760/47128

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