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MS Office Forum / Excel / Charting / September 2007

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Linear Versus Moving Average

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Douglas Eckert - 28 Sep 2007 15:45 GMT
I am describing a trend in monthly Immunization totals to hospital
management.  Immunizations are up 17% over last year's total at this time.  
However, a simple linear trendline points downward because of seasonal work
patterns - very high in the beginning, then lower, then gradually bending
upward in the last several months.  A moving average "trend"  merely
approximates this year's work pattern - so, why display it at all?  Yet, if I
were to choose to display a trendline,  a moving average approximates the
actual peformance of this department.  Is it useful to include a trendline in
this situation?   (In a similar vein, I use a moving average to trend
physician's monthly peformance, but the overall reaction has been "so what?").
Mike Middleton - 28 Sep 2007 19:34 GMT
Douglas Eckert  -

If you have enough data, one approach is to model the trend (long-run
average behavior) and seasonal components separately and then combine them
for forecasts. For an example workbook, see
http://www.mikemiddleton.com/LinearTrendSeasonalForecast.xls

-  Mike Middleton
http://www.DecisionToolworks.com
Decision Analysis Add-ins for Excel

>I am describing a trend in monthly Immunization totals to hospital
> management.  Immunizations are up 17% over last year's total at this time.
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
> physician's monthly peformance, but the overall reaction has been "so
> what?").
Douglas Eckert - 28 Sep 2007 20:03 GMT
Thanks a lot, Mike!

DOUG

> Douglas Eckert  -
>
[quoted text clipped - 21 lines]
> > physician's monthly peformance, but the overall reaction has been "so
> > what?").
 
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