[Babase] MEMBERS comparison - Karl question
Karl O. Pinc
babase@www.eco.princeton.edu
Tue, 27 Sep 2005 17:05:03 +0000
(BTW, this is exactly why it's important to get absences
entered after the statdate for dead individuals.)
On 09/27/2005 11:19:33 AM, Karl O. Pinc wrote:
>
> On 09/27/2005 10:11:47 AM, Catherine Markham wrote:
>> Karl,
>>
>> I have a question for you about MEMBERS interpolation regarding
>> death dates. The documentation states the following:
>>
>> "... 14 day interpolation limit applies when the individual is dead.
>> When there are no absences after the last census and there are more
>> than 14 days between the last census and the Statdate the individual
>> is placed in the unknown group from the 15th day through the day of
>> death."
>>
>> That makes sense to me, but I don't think I had also consciously
>> considered the other way an individual can be placed in Group 9 on
>> the death date - it didn't occur to me until looking into the
>> records for ATO.
>>
>> ATO is a female censused in Weaver's group as present on 25 May 2001
>> and absent on the next group census day on 29 May 2001 (this absence
>> was entered in CENSUS). Her death date is 27 May 2001. The old
>> MEMBERS placed her in Weaver's group on this day, the new MEMBERS
>> places her in the unknown group on this day. The new MEMBERS is
>> looking at the absence on 29 May 2001 no differently than it would
>> for, say, any male who disappears from a study group - it
>> essentially considers ATO's group to be 9 on the 29th. So it turns
>> out that the 27th is a perfect mid-point between presence in
>> Weaver's and placement in Group 9. This makes the day's group
>> placement more or less a coin toss - it could have been Weaver's or
>> it could have been (and in this case it was) Group 9.
>>
>> Did I follow the logic of that correctly?
>
> Yes. Exactly. In fact, this caught me too when I went to review
> the members comparison. IIRC I'd explicitly put in an example
> like this in the documentation, but even so I'd forgotten again
> until it came up in real data.
>
> Karl <kop@meme.com>
> Free Software: "You don't pay back, you pay forward."
> -- Robert A. Heinlein
>
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>
Karl <kop@meme.com>
Free Software: "You don't pay back, you pay forward."
-- Robert A. Heinlein