The value of secondary data analysis

This is the information age. More and more data being collected is also being made publicly available, particularly government collected data. Some geographies receive, for a variety of reasons (usually political and historical), more scrutiny than others. If you live or work in one of these communities and are thinking about research that will lead to change, utilizing existing data has a number of advantages.

Analysis of big data sets - the kind the government has the access and money to produce - can be a great starting point. It can give you some information about health outcomes, socio-economic indicators, sometimes even lifestyle. Then qualitative methods can be used to elicit the meaning of these facts to the community - the "hows" and "whys" that can lead to action strategies for change.

When you get to the action strategy phase, it is useful to have government data to back your claims, particularly when you are advocating for changes that must be enacted or implemented by the government. It is also illuminating to look at what data is being collected and how. Changing what the government collects for the record may be an important part of your advocacy campaign.

Analyzing available data, obviously takes less time than designing research methods, collecting data, and analyzing data. It is also much cheaper. In fact, most professional policy analysts do very little primary data collection, because of constraints of time and money.

For these reasons, secondary data analysis can be the just-in-time strategy that action-hungry communities are looking for.