Let’s say you have a big question. A question that involves so much data that it would take a lifetime to sort your way to the answer. Say you want to know about the winter health of the most Northern European Countries over the course of a decade. You’re considering moving to Norway but are concerned about how people in this northern country experience Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), given the long periods of cold and darkness. But it’s not just Norway. It’s Sweden and Finland and Denmark and Belarus! How are those countries affected by Seasonal Affective Disorder? As you’re thinking about the indicators that could give you a picture of this, you would like information about the rates of substance abuse, percentage of the population that are prescribed anti-depressants, and the number of public programs or media campaigns aimed at addressing the issue. This seems like an impossible ask. It’s too specific and there’s no way that anyone is gathering data on this issue, right? Wrong.
The United Nations Development Programme created the Human Development Index to compile data in a way that would give us a worldwide view of areas of human development – i.e. the capabilities of that country’s citizens to function. The dimensions of the index are a Long and Healthy Life, Knowledge, and Standard of Living. The dimensions break down into indicators, and then into dimension indexes. This index as a whole, is massive, and would require a specific field to be valuable to anyone individually. The value of Indexes, however – especially for a policy administration sphere – cannot be underestimated.
Going back to our first example. Assuming the existence of a Winter Wellness Index for northern Europe, what if Finland has a declining rate of those prescribed antidepressants as compared to Norway, whose rate is static? This could indicate a policy measure that has been created to combat this. Perhaps the government authorized a rebate on the citizen purchase of SAD lamps and outdoor recreation fees. In any case, this may lead to further investigation and implementation of different policy measures for your purposes. Indexes allow us to look, broad picture, at what other people are doing or not doing that is affecting the way the measured population lives. It also allows us to see anomalies, issues, and gaps more quickly than if we were unable to look at the data as a whole, and in a comparative manner.
I’ve heard more than once about massive data dumps – often the result of well-meaning social programs – that have never and will never be processed. Perhaps if we considered the bird’s eye view, we’d see more value in that data. Sometimes you have to climb the tree to see the forest.
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Photo by KML on Pexels.com
Hannah Elich 