MARCAD DATA MANAGEMENT AND ANALYSIS WORKSHOP

MARCAD organized a one-week course in data management and analysis for its Fellows (postdocs and PhD’s students supported within the program to allow them to gain more skills in STATA1 6 and R software programs, in order to better manage and use their research data. The workshop took place from 21^st – 25^th October 2019 at the University of Yaounde 1/ Cameroon.

The five days’ workshop was facilitated by Dr Nazarius Mbona Tumwesigye, current country (Uganda) director of the Wellcome Trust-funded Sub-Saharan Africa Consortium for Advanced Biostatistics training (SSACAB). He was assisted by Innocent B. Mboya, an Applied Biostatistician and Assistant Lecturer at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College (KCMUCo), Tanzania.

The training brought together more than 20 participants. They learned and gained a better understanding of key data management principles and how to perform simple and advanced analyses in Stata 16 and R software.

Thanks to the MARCAD biostatistics Course, attendees have been able to achieve the following objectives:

1. Acquire and apply data management skills using STATA/R programs,
2. Develop a data analysis plan,
3. Make a choice of statistical techniques/ regression models most suitable for different types of data and different objectives,
4. Apply skills in the analysis of continuous, categorical and time to event data.

The organization of the course has been adapted: refresher courses followed by practical sessions in both software with the final objective of producing practical information and adapted to the writing of an article.

Dr Aminata Colle Lo, MARCAD Fellow «The course was delivered in a very methodical way.

The trainers gathered on both sides those who already had bases with statistical analysis software R and STATA with a facilitator for each group. The process was very educational. This allowed us to benefit more from the lessons learned to improve our knowledge and skills for data analysis. Thanks to this MARCAD training, I have not only improved my knowledge of R, but also, I got an idea of ​​how to analyse data later obtained from my research projects».

Ange Florent, Master Student « I really appreciated the way the course was taught, and it helped me a lot to improve my shortcomings. Being a statistician, the knowledge gained during this course will help me in my work. Now I am better equipped to analyse statistical data and to generate statistical databases. This MARCAD initiative is a very good one and it is to be encouraged. I am very satisfied with what I have accumulated in terms of knowledge during this workshop».

Peter Thelma Ngwa Niba MARCAD PhD fellow «I had some background on statistics but this course has better improve our enhance, my understanding of certain aspects that I initially didn’t consider very much and I think that the programme which was chosen, the R and STATA, was very appropriated. R, initially I had a very poor understanding of R software just because I didn’t have that interest. I think from my training this week, I’m becoming more interested in R and I really love to improve my knowledge and do a lot of things that I couldn’t do before. »