BFS Survey

[pbohan]

Help us to determine what remedies and drugs work best to alleviate BFS symptoms. The below survey is easy to fill out and we will compute mathematical models and statistics from the data that we will share with everyone. You will be anonymous. This is a follow up to my post "Can Math Help us Solve BFS".

https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreads ... E6MQ#gid=0

Thank you to the administrators of this site for helping me make this questionnaire / survey.

[Barbie800]

It's not working.

[dreadpirateroberts]

It doesn't look like you have the full web page id shown. When you click on the link the last part of the id on the website that pops up (shows that page is not found) is /viewinfo, but I think the missing part of the webpage link is in the "... E6MQ#gid=0" part of your message.

[pbohan]

Let me try again. Sorry, for some reason when I cut and paste from another topic I posted the survey on, it does not give the whole url.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewfor ... E6MQ#gid=0

Thanks for your patience.

[pbohan]

We only have had 14 people complete the survey to data (a good start), but I took the liberty to upload some results on Google docs. We need to find another way to share the information, Google docs distorts the information and eliminates information including all the data plots. It also has some document size issues. The first doc provides some statistic definitions, the second doc contains some general statistics on the twitching and the feet variable (each question answered in the questionnaire is a variable). The 3rd file is a model about BFS and how it affects our body parts. This is a bad model for a number of reasons, I will have to think more about this topic, but it gives you some information - but without the plots it is not very visual.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hmA ... dit?hl=en#

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key ... l=en#gid=0

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key ... l=en#gid=0

If you want to view the complete document (all the data plots and information omitted on Google Docs) you can pull them down from my website:

http://patrickbohan.home.bresnan.net/BFS.htm

If your computer wants to download the .zip version simply choose save and overwrite .zip with .xlsx or as docx (for the statistic definition file). Under BFS Questionnaire Results there are three files. The first is the data in the model (the result of 14 respondents to date). The second is the statistical analysis run on a few variables (each question is a variable). There are six tabs on this Excel file and each one represents a statistical analysis on one variable (years diagnosed, twitching, feet, benzo, and day). The last tab on this file, body activity, is an example of a model run on the data. The model is not good but it gives us a good idea what one looks like. This is just to show what can be created from the data. These are merely examples. When we get enough data, I will do a better job summarizing the results. The third file is a Word document that gives some definitions of the statistical tests being performed. I tried to place this same information on Google Docs (the links above), but it distorts the files and omits important information.

[bfshopeful]

I am confident that I can say for everyone here that those numbers don't mean anything to us. I even got an A in stats, but this is nothing but jumble.

[pbohan]

As I pointed out, when and if I get enough respondants, I will sumarize the data. I am merely posting some prelimary data to show what I can generate in an effort to get more people to join the survey.

If you got an A stats, then you can for sure identify the average and mean of the stats. I did place a defintion page to help better explain what is being posted. If you looked at Google Docs, I agree, it is jumbled. It distorts and eliminates data. You may get more out of pulling down what I posted on my web page.

statistics can be one of the most confusing math classes. It can get complex. It is not easy.

[pbohan]

There have only been 19 respondants to date. We will need more data to yield more accurate results - I was hoping for at least 100. At this rate it may be a while before I post some results - I am going to give people a chance to contribute to the survey. I will post results regardless of how many respondants we have take the survey.

[dreadpirateroberts]

I do quite a bit of statistical analysis for my job (engineering) and yes it looks like you need quite a bit more data as the variance in data is quite high. However, the second spreadsheet holds more identifiable information. The last column (P) shows the relative frequency of where our twitching is occurring most often - so far it shows that the most prevalent place is our feet and the back in last place. You probably should keep bumping the survey posts up so it stays in our view.

[aussie sufferer]

done....
cheers
Rodger

[pbohan]

Thanks for the feedback. We are up to 21 respondants. Yes, the data indicates that the symptoms are most prevelent in the feet and lower legs, but as you point out the variance and standard deviation are high - meaning there are some people that do not have the symptoms in the feet and lower legs. The V and SD are high for all the parameters. The data also suggests that other than twitching the highest symptoms are pins and needles, vibration sensation, and muscle soreness. The drugs with the best performance are Benzo, muscle relaxants, supliments, and anti convulsants. But we need more data as you suggest.

It is always good to have a another person look over the data and give their impression. My background is engineering as well and have dealt with statistic analysis a great deal. I have been playing with the data regularly and have not found any strong correlation between parameters (ie. symptom relief and remedies/drugs, causes and symptoms, etc - the models are weak) but hopefully we can get more data.

I posted this survey on the other board index sites as well.

[tiggida]

Hello, I just filled the form out. I hope we can get somewhere with this. Thanks for doing this.

[pbohan]

Thanks Tiggida. We are now up to 25 respondants. If we get to a 100 we may be getting somewhere. It may take some time. In the meantime I will continue to play with the data and give intermediate updates.

[pbohan]

It is still early in the survey (27 replies). Here is an update of some statistical averages (need more data to find trends/correlation and to better define the syndrome):

General Stats:

Age: 38.45
Sex: 66.7% Male
Region: 70.4% North America, 22.2% Europe, 3.7% Oceania
MRI: 59.3% Yes
EMG: 66.7% Yes
Years with symptoms: 4.19
Years diagnosed: 2.4
Time: 4.52 (Meaning people feel there symptoms are improving over time)
Day: 26.9% Morning, 33.3% Day/Evening, 40.7% Night (Time when symptoms are worse)

Potential Causes:
Flu shot: 11.1%
Chemicals: 7.4%
Prescription drugs: 25.9%
Neck/Spine injury: 14.8%
Sickness: 29.6%
Exercise: 18.5%
Stress: 81.5%
History: 22.2%
Other: 22.2%

Totals more than 100% because people selected multiple potential causes (this is okay)

Stressers (things that make the symptoms worse)
Sickness 4.65 (out of 10)
Exercise: 4.72
Stress: 6.81

Symptoms:

Twitching: 7.96 (out of 10)
Pins and Needles: 4.24
Cramps: 3.37
Muscle Fatigue: 3.68
Headaches: 2.59
Itching: 2.19
Numbness: 2.91
Muscle Stiffness: 4.22
Muscle Vibrations/Buzzing: 4.24
Muscle Pain/Soreness: 4.87
Sensitivity to Temperature: 2.67
Symptom Average: 3.9

Body:

Feet: 5.94 (out of 10)
Lower Leg: 7.22
Upper Leg: 5.24
Hip/Butt: 3.69
Back: 3.42
Stomach: 3.02
Chest: 2.7
Head/Neck: 4.4
Hands: 5.11
Arms / Shoulders: 5.4
Body Average: 4.62

Treatments:

Benzo: 3.91 (out of 10, for those that tried the treatment), 59% did not try the method
Anti-Convulsant: 3.36, 48.1%
Anti-Depressant: 3, 51.8%
Potassium Channel: 1, 96.3%
Sleeping Pills: 3.16, 78%
Muscle Relaxant: 3.64, 59.3%
Homeopathic: 2.2, 63%
Supplements: 2.25, 18.5%
Diet: 2.23, 51.8%
Acupuncture: 2.5, 92.6%
Massage: 2.19, 59.3%
Yoga: 2.7, 62.9%

As you can see many of us have not tried many treatment methods - overall.

[pbohan]

We now have 29 participants. Since a majority of the people in the survey have not tried a majority of the potential remedies, we will need a much larger sample size to find correlation between symptoms and remedies. So please join the survey. If you have any questions or concerns do not hesitate to contact me. Thank You.