Thursday, February 26, 2009

The way I name my variables

Is one way I stick it to the man.

Today, I named the binary variable that denotes whether patients are 65 or older "old" for instance. I also made female 1 and male 0. High school education or less got a 0 as well.

Give me a little credit. At least I didn't call the "high baseline pain" variable "whininess factor."

Not that I actually believe any of these things. No, I just wanted to name them that way because I could.

My only opportunity to be non-PC. For some reason, it gave me perverse enjoyment. I think it was because I was breaking a "rule."

I like breaking rules.

1 Pearls of Wisdom:

gabbiana said...

Hee. And, re: your post above, "female 1, male 0" also describes patient tolerance of rectal exams pretty well.