Concept help - Data Element

A data element represents the union of a Data Element Concept and a Value Domain. The following examples demonstrate how a concept can be paired with values to capture detailed information, e.g. Person — date of birth, DDMMYYYY, Person — country of birth, code Australian Standard Classification of Countries NNNN and Person — religious affiliation, code Religious Affiliation Standard 2012 NNNN.

The same data element concept may be paired with various sets of values to form different data elements and thereby customising the way information is specified for collection. For example the concept of Occupation may be associated with a value domain which references the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations and be collected at different digit levels representing the Major Group, Sub-Major Group, Minor Group, Unit Group or Occupation.

Data elements may stand alone or be associated with other item types such as Data Element Derivations.

ISO/IEC 11179-3 Section 11.5.2.1

Data_Element is a class each instance of which models a data element (3.2.28), a unit of data (3.2.27) that is considered in context to be indivisible.

A Data_Element is considered to be a basic unit of data of interest to an organisation. It is a unit of data for which the definition, identification, representation, and permissible values are specified by means of a set of attributes.

A Data_Element is formed when a Data_Element_Concept (11.5.2.2) is assigned a representation. One of the key components of a representation is the Value_Domain (11.5.2.3), i.e., restricted valid values.