1. Module Introduction and Getting Started with Stata
Session 1
Module Introduction and Getting Started with Stata

2. Introduction Welcome Housekeeping Introductions
Name, job, district, team 2

3. Module Overview Module objectives are to provide you with
Skills in data analysis
Keeping in mind the analysis objectives
While learning the use of a specialised statistical software package Stata
There will be a strong emphasis on conducting
meaningful analyses and on the interpretation
of the results.

4. Module content Data management Data entry principles and practices
using Epi Info
designing data capture screens,
labelling and entering data, etc.
Simple statistical analysis
in Epi Info
and using the statistics package, Instat.
Report writing. 4

5. Duration and timetable
Morning
Afternoon
Day 1
Getting started with Stata
Continued
Day 2
Tables
Project work part 1
Day 3
Graphs
Project work part 2
Day 4
Reviewing inference: estimation and confidence intervals
Reviewing inference: Hypothesis testing
Day 5
Tests of association in 2-way tables
Sampling weights
Day 6
Project work part 3: writing the report
Putting it all in context 5

6. Module Learning Objectives
At the end of the module, participants will :
appreciate the power of Stata as a statistical package
be able to undertake elementary data management and statistical analyses in Stata
have updated their practical knowledge of the key statistical inference concepts of estimation and hypothesis testing
be able to produce graphs and tables using Stata,
have sufficient knowledge of Stata to be able to work independently to produce other analyses 6

7. Prerequisites Completion of Modules 1 and 2
At least a theoretical knowledge of statistical inference 7

8. Resources Stata software - version 10
This should be installed already
It may need updating and a Stata “package” adding – see later slides
Guide to survey data analysis using Stata
Part 1 (Chapters 1 to 10) is used here
Part 2 (Chapters 11 to 20) is supplied for reference
Inference guide
Used particularly in Sessions 7 and 8 8

9. Concepts more than software
The emphasis is on the concepts of data analysis and statistical inference
Using Stata
Rather than just on Stata itself
Here we largely use the menus and dialogues
Though ways of using and reading commands are introduced
Software is now easy to master
It is the statistical concepts that benefit from a course

10. Learning objectives – sessions 1 and 2
These two sessions are about Stata
Participants will be able to:
Load and save data
Explore data
Using describe, codebook, summarize, etc
Calculate new variables
Using generate, recode, etc
Add labels to variables and to levels of a factor
Create subsets of data using drop and keep

11. Session Contents In this session we look in particular at:
Windows and menus in Stata
Opening Stata data files
Stata dialogues
Typing and editing commands
Using Stata as a calculator
Exiting Stata

12. The four Stata windows Review Stata Results Variables
and window for typing Stata commands

13. The Stata menus and toolbar
The three most important menus
Data (for organising and managing the data),
Graphics (for visual exploration & presentation),
Statistics (for analysis).
Data, Graphics, Statistics

14. Check Stata is up-to-date
Use Help => Official updates
If updating is needed, either:
Do it automatically if you are connected to the internet
Or use the files on the CD/DVD that are under Stata resources

15. The Data and Graphics Menus

16. Your turn Check by finding the dialogue in Stata save data?
Click on several menus and explain their usage to your neighbour
You can deduce the menu from the logic of the task
e.g. to draw a graph you go to the graphics menu!
Which menu would you probably need to use to:
save data?
sort a data set?
produce a bar chart?
tabulate the data?
Check by finding the dialogue in Stata

17. Stata guide Section 1.2 You use Stata as a calculator
Go through this section together
Check the buttons at the bottom of the dialogue
They are the same on all dialogues

18. Using Stata as a calculator
To perform calculations, use
Data  Other utilities  Hand calculator
Type 2+3 into the Expression slot
Press the Submit button
See answer in Results Window, and appearance of corresponding command in both the Results and Review windows.

19. Results from the dialogue
You can get back to any dialogue box by typing db in front of the command name.
e.g. db display

20. Creating an expression
Click create and then complete the resulting expression builder dialogue box.
Or type:
display ln(10)

21. Stata guide Section 1.3
From this point you use a dataset that is supplied
Check that you have a working directory
And that it has the files for this module
Copy them in, if not
They are on the CD/DVD under Stata resources
You could install the Stata package as well if you wish.
Then use Files => Change working directory
To set this directory for the future

22. Opening a Stata data file
Use the menu sequence
File, Open…
select (highlight) the file named
K_combined_short.dta
and click on Open
This will load the data from the Kenya socio-economic survey into Stata
Look at the Variables Window. What do you observe?

23. Options within the Data menu

24. An example of a dialogue box
Dialogue results from using the menu sequence
Data,
 Describe data,
 Describe data contents (codebook)

25. In the codebook dialogue box…
The Submit button
instructs Stata to execute the command, leaving the dialogue box visible.
The OK button does the same,
but closes the dialogue box.
Cancel closes the dialogue box
without submitting the command to Stata.
The R button resets the dialogue box
to its empty form.
‘?’ gives help on the command
associated with the dialogue box.
The word “codebook” at the top of the dialogue
shows “codebook” is the command that will be generated

26. Another dialogue box Dialogue results from using the menu sequence
Data,
Describe data,
Summary statistics

27. Results from codebook and summarize

28. Your turn In Chapter 1 of the Stata guide, go through Section 1.3
Ask a resource person if you are unclear about
any parts of the above sections.

29. Review What do each of these buttons do?
Menus (and corresponding commands) used so far:
display
describe
codebook
list
generate
replace
by/if//in
What does each one do?

30. Your turn again In Chapter 1 of the Stata guide, go through
Section 1.6
Section 1.7
Section 1.8
Ask a resource person if you are unclear about
any parts of the above sections.

31. Review again Explain to a neighbour why:
(3<4) gives the value 1 in Stata
(3>4) gives the value 0
They then explain to you why the expression:
1 + (age>24) + (age>60)
Recodes a column into the values 1, 2 or 3
(Hint – see Section 1.6 Fig 1.19 and 1.20 if you need help)

32. Typing and editing commands
Professional use of Stata for data analysis
benefits by some use of Stata commands
These are typed into the Command Window
To execute a command just press <Enter>.
To edit a previous command:
Click on it in the review window,
or use the Page-Up key – perhaps repeatedly.
In the Results Window
A “dot” appears in front of executed commands
whether generated by a dialogue, or by typing the command.

33. Command for listing data
In the command window, typing
list region district household cluster
will show the contents of each of the variables region, district, household and cluster.
(Note: Stata is case sensitive)
Pressing the GO button (see Stata menu bar) or the space bar allows you to scroll down the page
To stop the display, press the red break icon button or press the letter q on your keyboard.
To exit Stata, use:
File  Exit

34. Your turn yet again In Chapter 2 of the Stata guide, go through
Sections 2.1 and 2.2
(You can go further if you have time)
If you have your own data
And it is not already in a Stata file, then:
In Chapter 3 of the Stata guide, go through
Sections 3.2.1, 3.2.2, 3.2.3
And discuss importing with the resource persons

35. … and finally…
Consider a data set from your own district or ministry that is available as an Excel file.
Follow procedures similar to those in Section of the Stata Guide, to load your Excel data set into Stata.
Save your data as a Stata file, giving it an appropriate name and noting the directory on your computer where it has been saved.
Note: You will return to this data set in sessions that follow.