Statistical Analysis of Achilles Recovery Data
Posted by rseiter on June 10, 2014
As part of trying to work out my recovery protocol I did some statistical analysis of the AchillesBlog recovery data and thought others might be interested (I can put the R code on GitHub if anyone wants to see it).
The current analysis is a bit rough at the moment (it contains my exploratory data analysis right now), but here are some results I found intriguing.
Note that it’s probably not good to focus on the 2014 results since they will be skewed by missing longer duration responses for recent injuries.
Looking at “time until” status by year it seems that time until PWB, FWB, and PT all show a decreasing trend by year, but time until Two Shoes is relatively constant. Here are PWB and TwoShoes, the others are at the end of the linked HTML (along with the numerical summary statistics).
It’s too bad the recovery data does not include op/non-op status. It would be interesting to see if the decrease is driven by non-op due to the recent UWO, Exeter, etc. studies (and to see if the op/non-op balance has changed over the years).
June 10th, 2014 at 9:49 am
This is great. Very possible that the non-op advancements are driving the PWB/FWB drops (and holding on 2 shoes, because the delta in modern/classic protocols time to 2 shoes is less pronounced — it’s just what happens after!)
June 10th, 2014 at 11:58 am
I’ve suggested to Dennis that he add op vs non-op to the database and the ATR Timeline Widget too. I assume it would be easy going forward, and I think Dennis’s reluctance is because the op/non-op discussions have sometimes blossomed into unpleasant arguments, and have made D (and some of his old online pals) worry that a site that provides terrific support and how-to advice to patients in rehab would be hijacked. It’s also natural that some patients in rehab, having made their choice of treatment, don’t enjoy even SEEING discussions that may undermine the story they were told pre-op. (I’ve tried to be sensitive about that, after ticking off a few posters here.)
I hope I’ve done a good job of summarizing D’s views. The comments to my own blog page “The Case for Skipping ATR Surgery” contains some comments by Dennis speaking for himself on this subject.
Meanwhile, being able to see which treatment a blogger got would help us all give meaningful support and advice too, IMHO - as well as better data analysis. So I still hope we can get it.
June 10th, 2014 at 4:31 pm
It is truly amazing what some of us can do when we have too much time on our hands. Well done. While Norm talks about op vs non op and the problems that debate has caused over the years we must also be mindful of the early WB/mobilization vs long term mobilization and NWB debate(speaking directly to myself here). Change is often brought about by discussion and debate which I am always up for. I think you have contributed well thus far and regardless of our choices or mode of treatment, support is generally found within these pages.