Describe one primary and one secondary data source that could be used in developing a
public program. Describe pros and cons of using each data source.
Primary Data Sources
One of the primary sources of data in public health programs is the affected population.
The population is surveyed through procedures such as interviews, focused group discussions, or
questionnaires (Johnston, 2017). Researchers are capable of regulating the process of data
collection, designing data collection tools, making arrangements with the respondents on the
time of data collection (Johnston, 2017). The researchers can, therefore, choose the elements of
data collection that are advantageous to their research. Primary data sources provide sufficient
data to the researchers. Researchers collect data on various subtopics of their interests (Johnston,
2017). Detailed data offers in-depth insight to the topics and subtopics of the research.
Researchers handle large volumes of data. Primary data is detailed. The researchers are
thus required to use different data processing and analysis methods. Primary data collection
consumes time. Researchers collect large values of data. The researchers need to segregate the
relevant and irrelevant data sources.
Secondary Sources of Data
One of the secondary sources of data is the use reviews of research articles. Data is
obtained from other sources apart from the study participant of sources of data. The articles
reviewed are available from various online platforms (Johnston, 2017). The data can be accessed
from any allocation. Secondary data may be incompatible. Data from various research articles is
collected, analyzed and presented in various formats and methods. These differences render the
data incompatible when analyzing, processing and presenting (Johnston, 2017). Some secondary
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data sources maybe outdated. The collection of data and storage into various platforms takes
time. Therefore, the available data needed for a certain public health program maybe be out of
date and irrelevant.
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References
Johnston, M. P. (2017). Secondary and Primary Data. Different and Mixed Qualitative and
quantitative methods, 3(3), 619-626.