con’founding, adj.
That which confounds; destroying, confusing, perplexing, amazing, etc.: see the verb.Archives
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Monthly Archives: January 2011
Metadata>paradata. Discuss.
Today’s S3RI methodology seminar was given by Gabi Durrant and Julia D’Arrigo. The subject was paradata, which I’m pretty sure is data which describes the process of survey data collection. It might be data about the person conducting the interviews, or … Continue reading
Posted in Academic research
Tagged longitudinal, paradata
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Values and conflict in the voluntary sector
Malin Arvidson, who is part of the Third Sector Research Centre, gave a seminar yesterday about some of the work she has been doing on the Real Times project. The Real Times project is longitudinal (which means that it follows people … Continue reading
Posted in Academic research, Methods
Tagged longitudinal, qualitative, third sector
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Time-varying covariates III
A thought occurs. Longitudinal data allows change to be studied within individuals was well as within populations. This is ‘a good thing’. You can look at whether a training programme affected an individual’s employment status, for example. Or whether breakfast … Continue reading
Population projection – and it’s depressing
My take-home message from today was slightly depressing. Sure, women do indeed live longer than men – but they live nearly all of those extra years with a disability. Sigh… I have a lingering interest in long-term care (for which … Continue reading
Posted in Academic research, Demography, Methods
Tagged change, population, projection, time
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Scaremongering journalist…? Not this time.
I’ve just been reading a Guardian article about a BMJ article about exclusive breastfeeding for six months. As a member of a university, I’m privileged to have access to many journals online, including the BMJ. I used that privilege to … Continue reading
Posted in Academic research, Journalism
Tagged BMJ, breastfeeding, evidence, Guardian, scare
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Time-varying covariates II
My division runs a reading group. The subject is always methodological – this semester it’s a textbook on longitudinal data analysis (“Applied Longitudinal Data Analysis: Modeling Change and Event Occurrence” by Singer and Willett, for those who are interested). The … Continue reading
Bandwagon vs. threshold
I saw an interesting presentation by Helen Margetts from the Oxford Internet Institute at Southampton last month. Her research suggests a threshold effect for political participation. Under her experimental conditions, people were statistically significantly more likely to participate politically (in this case, … Continue reading
Great post from the Harvard blog
Matt Blackwell at the Harvard Social Science Statistics Blog draws attention (in a most amusing way) to this interesting NY Times article. Worth a read. Basically, a professor with “a great sense of humour” (Daryl J. Bem) claims to have demonstrated … Continue reading
Posted in Journalism, Other blogs
Tagged amusing, Harvard, ignorance, NY Times
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Time-varying covariates
In an analysis of longitudinal data, you find variables which change over time (e.g. marital status) and those that do not (e.g. date of birth). I was forced to think about the place of time-varying covariates in longitudinal data analysis … Continue reading
Posted in Academic research
Tagged change, longitudinal, time
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Founding the Confounding Factor
What is a confounding factor? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, confounding is “destroying, confusing, perplexing, amazing, etc”. In statistics, a confounding factor or variable worms its way between your carefully chosen cause and effect, making a nonsense of your research … Continue reading