{"id":1132,"date":"2015-07-14T21:00:16","date_gmt":"2015-07-14T20:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/?p=1132"},"modified":"2015-07-10T11:18:15","modified_gmt":"2015-07-10T10:18:15","slug":"why-are-you-measuring-it-like-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/2015\/07\/14\/why-are-you-measuring-it-like-that\/","title":{"rendered":"Why are you measuring it like that?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"We measure, monitor and assess lots of things in our jobs. We frequently try hard not to think about poorly reproducible some things are – take breathlessness in children <\/a>as discussed in a\u00a0recent blog<\/a> – and the whole literature is methodologically far weaker than that of intervention research. Sometimes we’re really like to assess something, but find it hard to work out exactly how to make that measurement: for example, what should we be measuring when looking at “time to antibiotics” in sepsis – door to ‘needle’ time? proportion less then one hour? first fever to antibiotic duration?<\/p>\n

Sometimes it can help to take a completely different idea, to think about what elements might be important.<\/p>\n

Say – “home field advantage<\/a>” in competitive team sports<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The idea of\u00a0“home field advantage” is, as many people will know, that a home team is more likely to win\u00a0than the away team. (Why is another question – not to be dealt with here.) Which team in a league has the greatest\u00a0home field advantage – and how could you calculate that?<\/p>\n

We could look at the proportion of games that are won at home. That will just\u00a0tell us more about which teams are\u00a0higher in the league.<\/p>\n

We could look at the proportion of home wins compared to the proportion of away wins – that would give us an ‘internal control’ – and will get us a view of which teams outperform themselves in their own stadium. Although, this only tells us about if the home team got more points than the away team on each occasion. It’s not really the ‘magnitude’ of the advantage.<\/p>\n

So we could look at the number of points scored at home, compared with away. Or perhaps points conceded, home vs. away, to tell us about the advantage when attacking and defending. Or maybe score difference, to capture the ‘A’ and the ‘D’ elements?<\/p>\n

Which approach is correct? How would you judge which is the right way to measure it? Unpicking the elements involved might well give better clarity when next thinking how to make assessments at work.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

(If you’d like to see how these things stack up in the area of rugby league, pop over to examine the UK SuperLeague stats examined in detail on this blog here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We measure, monitor and assess lots of things in our jobs. We frequently try hard not to think about poorly reproducible some things are – take breathlessness in children as discussed in a\u00a0recent blog – and the whole literature is methodologically far weaker than that of intervention research. Sometimes we’re really like to assess something, […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archimedes"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy are you measuring it like that? - ADC Online Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/2015\/07\/14\/why-are-you-measuring-it-like-that\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why are you measuring it like that? - ADC Online Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We measure, monitor and assess lots of things in our jobs. We frequently try hard not to think about poorly reproducible some things are – take breathlessness in children as discussed in a\u00a0recent blog – and the whole literature is methodologically far weaker than that of intervention research. Sometimes we’re really like to assess something, [...]Read More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/2015\/07\/14\/why-are-you-measuring-it-like-that\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ADC Online Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-07-14T20:00:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/3\/35\/Descartes_mind_and_body.gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Bob Phillips\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Bob Phillips\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/adc\\\/2015\\\/07\\\/14\\\/why-are-you-measuring-it-like-that\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/adc\\\/2015\\\/07\\\/14\\\/why-are-you-measuring-it-like-that\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Bob Phillips\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/adc\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9e94029681ecf36e73bbd1eb2be2ef94\"},\"headline\":\"Why are you measuring it like that?\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-07-14T20:00:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/adc\\\/2015\\\/07\\\/14\\\/why-are-you-measuring-it-like-that\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":395,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/adc\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/adc\\\/2015\\\/07\\\/14\\\/why-are-you-measuring-it-like-that\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/upload.wikimedia.org\\\/wikipedia\\\/commons\\\/3\\\/35\\\/Descartes_mind_and_body.gif\",\"articleSection\":[\"archimedes\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/adc\\\/2015\\\/07\\\/14\\\/why-are-you-measuring-it-like-that\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/adc\\\/2015\\\/07\\\/14\\\/why-are-you-measuring-it-like-that\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/adc\\\/2015\\\/07\\\/14\\\/why-are-you-measuring-it-like-that\\\/\",\"name\":\"Why are you measuring it like that? - ADC Online Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/adc\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/adc\\\/2015\\\/07\\\/14\\\/why-are-you-measuring-it-like-that\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/adc\\\/2015\\\/07\\\/14\\\/why-are-you-measuring-it-like-that\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/upload.wikimedia.org\\\/wikipedia\\\/commons\\\/3\\\/35\\\/Descartes_mind_and_body.gif\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-07-14T20:00:16+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/adc\\\/2015\\\/07\\\/14\\\/why-are-you-measuring-it-like-that\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/adc\\\/2015\\\/07\\\/14\\\/why-are-you-measuring-it-like-that\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/adc\\\/2015\\\/07\\\/14\\\/why-are-you-measuring-it-like-that\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/upload.wikimedia.org\\\/wikipedia\\\/commons\\\/3\\\/35\\\/Descartes_mind_and_body.gif\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/upload.wikimedia.org\\\/wikipedia\\\/commons\\\/3\\\/35\\\/Descartes_mind_and_body.gif\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/adc\\\/2015\\\/07\\\/14\\\/why-are-you-measuring-it-like-that\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/adc\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Why are you measuring it like that?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/adc\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/adc\\\/\",\"name\":\"ADC Online Blog\",\"description\":\"Education, debate, and meandering thoughts on child health, using evidence and research.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/adc\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/adc\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/adc\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"ADC Online Blog\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/adc\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/adc\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/adc\\\/files\\\/2017\\\/10\\\/blog-logo-adc.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/adc\\\/files\\\/2017\\\/10\\\/blog-logo-adc.png\",\"width\":285,\"height\":34,\"caption\":\"ADC Online Blog\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/adc\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/adc\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9e94029681ecf36e73bbd1eb2be2ef94\",\"name\":\"Bob Phillips\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/9ce6165c429dd8d36e6532db799ebe58e6f9c614c44e05e60d553e4bac662441?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/9ce6165c429dd8d36e6532db799ebe58e6f9c614c44e05e60d553e4bac662441?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/9ce6165c429dd8d36e6532db799ebe58e6f9c614c44e05e60d553e4bac662441?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Bob Phillips\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/adc\\\/author\\\/bphillips\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Why are you measuring it like that? - ADC Online Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/2015\/07\/14\/why-are-you-measuring-it-like-that\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Why are you measuring it like that? - ADC Online Blog","og_description":"We measure, monitor and assess lots of things in our jobs. We frequently try hard not to think about poorly reproducible some things are – take breathlessness in children as discussed in a\u00a0recent blog – and the whole literature is methodologically far weaker than that of intervention research. Sometimes we’re really like to assess something, [...]Read More...","og_url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/2015\/07\/14\/why-are-you-measuring-it-like-that\/","og_site_name":"ADC Online Blog","article_published_time":"2015-07-14T20:00:16+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/3\/35\/Descartes_mind_and_body.gif","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Bob Phillips","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Bob Phillips","Estimated reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/2015\/07\/14\/why-are-you-measuring-it-like-that\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/2015\/07\/14\/why-are-you-measuring-it-like-that\/"},"author":{"name":"Bob Phillips","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/#\/schema\/person\/9e94029681ecf36e73bbd1eb2be2ef94"},"headline":"Why are you measuring it like that?","datePublished":"2015-07-14T20:00:16+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/2015\/07\/14\/why-are-you-measuring-it-like-that\/"},"wordCount":395,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/2015\/07\/14\/why-are-you-measuring-it-like-that\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/3\/35\/Descartes_mind_and_body.gif","articleSection":["archimedes"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/2015\/07\/14\/why-are-you-measuring-it-like-that\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/2015\/07\/14\/why-are-you-measuring-it-like-that\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/2015\/07\/14\/why-are-you-measuring-it-like-that\/","name":"Why are you measuring it like that? - ADC Online Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/2015\/07\/14\/why-are-you-measuring-it-like-that\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/2015\/07\/14\/why-are-you-measuring-it-like-that\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/3\/35\/Descartes_mind_and_body.gif","datePublished":"2015-07-14T20:00:16+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/2015\/07\/14\/why-are-you-measuring-it-like-that\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/2015\/07\/14\/why-are-you-measuring-it-like-that\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/2015\/07\/14\/why-are-you-measuring-it-like-that\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/3\/35\/Descartes_mind_and_body.gif","contentUrl":"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/3\/35\/Descartes_mind_and_body.gif"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/2015\/07\/14\/why-are-you-measuring-it-like-that\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Why are you measuring it like that?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/","name":"ADC Online Blog","description":"Education, debate, and meandering thoughts on child health, using evidence and research.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/#organization","name":"ADC Online Blog","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/files\/2017\/10\/blog-logo-adc.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/files\/2017\/10\/blog-logo-adc.png","width":285,"height":34,"caption":"ADC Online Blog"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/#\/schema\/person\/9e94029681ecf36e73bbd1eb2be2ef94","name":"Bob Phillips","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9ce6165c429dd8d36e6532db799ebe58e6f9c614c44e05e60d553e4bac662441?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9ce6165c429dd8d36e6532db799ebe58e6f9c614c44e05e60d553e4bac662441?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9ce6165c429dd8d36e6532db799ebe58e6f9c614c44e05e60d553e4bac662441?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Bob Phillips"},"url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/author\/bphillips\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1132\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}