Key Concepts About Recoding Variables in NHANES II
Recoding is an important step
for preparing an analytical dataset. You may want to recode
variables to create new variables that fit your analytic needs.
Recoding variables is useful in multiple scenarios, such as:
- recoding a categorical variable (e.g., race/ethnicity),
- recoding a continuous variable (e.g., age) into a
categorical variable (e.g. age group),
- calculating the mean value of several variables combined to
create a new variable (e.g., mean systolic and diastolic blood
pressure based on our different measures),
- combining several variables to create a new variable
(e.g., hypertension condition), and
- defining a disease or condition based on certain cut-off values (e.g., high cholesterol).
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