Question

Explain is a super simple way--so a 6th grader would understand: What is primary data? How is that different from secondary data? Would you use primary data or secondary data (or both) to gather information about your target population for your own program? (Remember to include a "for real" example)

Answer 1

primary data means a freshly first time collected data or a original data or a data which is directly collected from the stakeholders. for example collection of data by interview, by observing and by questionnaire.

secondary data means which is already collected by some one else. which is published or may not be published. for example data collected from case study, news paper， referrence books etc.

thus primary data is original and having more reliability as compare to secondary data. for example onsite data collection from a cancer hospital for a thesis from the patient is a primary data but collection of data from the last five years from that same hopital is a secondary data. because that was collected by some one else.

both primary data and secondary data are required for any thesis or dissertation program. it depends upon the type of research conducting. if you doing any knowledge, attitude, practice studies then primary data need to collect. if you are doing any descriptive or qualitarive research or behavioural study then secondary data must required. for example “a study to know the knowledge of nursing student regarding the dengue disease” this type of study need primary data collection from the nursing student by interview or by questionnaire. but “a study on magnitude of cancer in odisha in last 2years” this type of study needs secondary data because we have to search for last two years cancer diagnosed patient from the admission register.

it is always important that the data should accurate, reliable, valid and actual.