Longitudinal relationship between academic staffs’ evaluation score by students and their characteristics: Does the choice of correlation structure matter?
Each semester, students are asked to evaluate the academic staff through an online questionnaire. Generalized estimating equations model (GEE), taking into account the correlation between scores, is the established tool to analyze longitudinal data. The aim of this manuscript is to identify characte...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Tehran University of Medical Sciences
2016-06-01
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| Series: | Journal of Biostatistics and Epidemiology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://jbe.tums.ac.ir/index.php/jbe/article/view/49 |
| _version_ | 1818404961120157696 |
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| author | Malihe Rezaei Ali Akbar Haghdoost Maryam Okhovati Farzane Zolala Mohammad Reza Baneshi |
| author_facet | Malihe Rezaei Ali Akbar Haghdoost Maryam Okhovati Farzane Zolala Mohammad Reza Baneshi |
| author_sort | Malihe Rezaei |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Each semester, students are asked to evaluate the academic staff through an online questionnaire. Generalized estimating equations model (GEE), taking into account the correlation between scores, is the established tool to analyze longitudinal data. The aim of this manuscript is to identify characteristics that influence staff score and to address the importance of selection of appropriate correlation structure. We analyzed scores of 336 staff in six consecutive semesters applying GEE with three correlation structures: exchangeable, autoregressive, and unstructured. We also compared the performance of these correlation structures via simulation study. Three normally distributed outcomes with exchangeable correlation structure were simulated. Four independent variables (two continuous and two binary) of which only one was related to the outcome were generated. In the empirical data set, time and academic degree were positively correlated with staffs’ score. Our simulation study showed that the probability that autoregressive and unstructured correlation structures select wrong predictors as being significant is 1.3% and 3.7%. We concluded tha evaluation of staff by students improved the quality of education. In addition, selection of inappropriate correlation structure affects the significance of variables. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-14T08:48:28Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-784660658e7b4e168a4e75c895b9564e |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2383-4196 2383-420X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-14T08:48:28Z |
| publishDate | 2016-06-01 |
| publisher | Tehran University of Medical Sciences |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Biostatistics and Epidemiology |
| spelling | doaj.art-784660658e7b4e168a4e75c895b9564e2022-12-21T23:09:06ZengTehran University of Medical SciencesJournal of Biostatistics and Epidemiology2383-41962383-420X2016-06-0121Longitudinal relationship between academic staffs’ evaluation score by students and their characteristics: Does the choice of correlation structure matter?Malihe Rezaei0Ali Akbar Haghdoost1Maryam Okhovati2Farzane Zolala3Mohammad Reza Baneshi4Department of Biostatistics, School of Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.Department of Epidemiology, Research enter for Modeling in Health, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.Department of Library and Information Science, Medical Informatics Research enter, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.Department of Epidemiology, Research Center for Modeling in Health, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.Department of Biostatistics, Modeling in Health Research Center, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.Each semester, students are asked to evaluate the academic staff through an online questionnaire. Generalized estimating equations model (GEE), taking into account the correlation between scores, is the established tool to analyze longitudinal data. The aim of this manuscript is to identify characteristics that influence staff score and to address the importance of selection of appropriate correlation structure. We analyzed scores of 336 staff in six consecutive semesters applying GEE with three correlation structures: exchangeable, autoregressive, and unstructured. We also compared the performance of these correlation structures via simulation study. Three normally distributed outcomes with exchangeable correlation structure were simulated. Four independent variables (two continuous and two binary) of which only one was related to the outcome were generated. In the empirical data set, time and academic degree were positively correlated with staffs’ score. Our simulation study showed that the probability that autoregressive and unstructured correlation structures select wrong predictors as being significant is 1.3% and 3.7%. We concluded tha evaluation of staff by students improved the quality of education. In addition, selection of inappropriate correlation structure affects the significance of variables.https://jbe.tums.ac.ir/index.php/jbe/article/view/49longitudinal datageneralized estimating equationscorrelation structureevaluationsimulation study |
| spellingShingle | Malihe Rezaei Ali Akbar Haghdoost Maryam Okhovati Farzane Zolala Mohammad Reza Baneshi Longitudinal relationship between academic staffs’ evaluation score by students and their characteristics: Does the choice of correlation structure matter? Journal of Biostatistics and Epidemiology longitudinal data generalized estimating equations correlation structure evaluation simulation study |
| title | Longitudinal relationship between academic staffs’ evaluation score by students and their characteristics: Does the choice of correlation structure matter? |
| title_full | Longitudinal relationship between academic staffs’ evaluation score by students and their characteristics: Does the choice of correlation structure matter? |
| title_fullStr | Longitudinal relationship between academic staffs’ evaluation score by students and their characteristics: Does the choice of correlation structure matter? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Longitudinal relationship between academic staffs’ evaluation score by students and their characteristics: Does the choice of correlation structure matter? |
| title_short | Longitudinal relationship between academic staffs’ evaluation score by students and their characteristics: Does the choice of correlation structure matter? |
| title_sort | longitudinal relationship between academic staffs evaluation score by students and their characteristics does the choice of correlation structure matter |
| topic | longitudinal data generalized estimating equations correlation structure evaluation simulation study |
| url | https://jbe.tums.ac.ir/index.php/jbe/article/view/49 |
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