Managing the Kanchanaburi demographic surveillance system: Creation of a relational database management system

Increasing attention is being paid to the collection of longitudinal data. This attention is, in part, a response to the difficulties faced in establishing causal relations with cross-sectional data. However, the collection and use of longitudinal data has brought with it a series of challenges that are not faced by researchers manipulating cross-sectional data. In this article we describe how initial data management models, based on cross-sectional data storage and manipulation used in the Kanchanaburi Demographic Surveillance System (KDSS), were found to be inadequate and were replaced by a database system that is consistent with longitudinal data collection, storage and manipulation.