{"id":1311,"date":"2016-06-10T20:40:20","date_gmt":"2016-06-10T19:40:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/?p=1311"},"modified":"2016-05-23T16:46:16","modified_gmt":"2016-05-23T15:46:16","slug":"statsminiblog-path-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/2016\/06\/10\/statsminiblog-path-analysis\/","title":{"rendered":"StatsMiniBlog: Path analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-1164\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/files\/2015\/09\/calculator-97842_640-150x150.png\" alt=\"calculator-97842_640\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/>It&#8217;s been a while since a little burst of statistical fun hit the blogosphere but summer is sort of here, and you may be faced with a choice of tracks\u00a0in a forest and unsure which one to take &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Path analysis will not aid you.<\/p>\n<p>Path analysis (aka &#8216;structural equation modelling&#8217; &#8230; sort of &#8230;) is a type of regression analysis, where you try to predict one thing that you don&#8217;t know (for example, final hight of a child) using stuff you do know (like the height of the parents, current age, height &amp; pubertal status).\u00a0<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Normal&#8217; regression analysis says &#8220;how are these things weighted?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Path&#8217; style analysis sets up a hypothesis (final height depends on current age &amp; height, but the power of these differ depending on puberty phase, and they are initially determined by parental height too) and then sees how strong those connections are.<\/p>\n<p>What usually happens is you show that they aren&#8217;t very strong. (&#8216;Cause the *real* path involves knowing the bone age, current IGF1 levels, nutritional status and duration of sleep nightly* and the path model works by assuming you know All The Things.) But they might help you understand suggested causality a little bit more.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Bob Phillips<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>* everyone knows that you only grow in your sleep and that is why children sleep so much &#8217;cause they need to grow<!--TrendMD v2.4.8--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s been a while since a little burst of statistical fun hit the blogosphere but summer is sort of here, and you may be faced with a choice of tracks\u00a0in a forest and unsure which one to take &#8230; Path analysis will not aid you. Path analysis (aka &#8216;structural equation modelling&#8217; &#8230; sort of &#8230;) [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/2016\/06\/10\/statsminiblog-path-analysis\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2676],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stats"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>StatsMiniBlog: Path analysis - 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\/2016\/06\/10\/statsminiblog-path-analysis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"StatsMiniBlog: Path analysis - ADC Online Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It&#8217;s been a while since a little burst of statistical fun hit the blogosphere but summer is sort of here, and you may be faced with a choice of tracks\u00a0in a forest and unsure which one to take &#8230; Path analysis will not aid you. 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