December 27, 2022 @ 3:59 PM

In PARS, there are many places you will see "GGHA Average" or a variation of it.  It stands for Group, Gender, Height, and Age.  As the population of PARS Boxers grows, we will be able to filter the database in real time so comparative results are more relevant.    

Within the PARS world, there are several tests where a Boxer's Parkinson's Group (Level), or their gender, or their height or their age impact their performance.  PARS is designed to be used as an individual boxer point-in-time assessment tool and generally we don't compare them against another boxer.  It is not a competition.  However, a boxer may want to know how they are doing when compared with other boxers with PD like them... same Group, same gender, similar height and similar age.  We call this the PARS GGHA Average.

As PARS boxers reach the thousands, we can filter the database by Group, Gender, Height and/or Age and then average the result getting the PARS GGHA Average.  As an example, when working with a boxer on the standing jump who is a newly diagnosed male, age 72 and 6'0" tall, we can compare him against the average of people in a similar situation.  Comparing him against a filter that includes 86 year old Group 3 women 5'0" tall just is not very relevant.  We want to compare him against Group 1 men, 70 to 75 years old (+/-2 years) who are 5'10 to 6'2" tall (+/-2 inches).  

Let's look at some examples of where filtering for similar boxers makes a difference in what the numbers tell us.

  • Group:  In almost every case we want to compare boxers against the average for people in their same group.  It is inappropriate to compare Group 1, newly diagnosed boxers, against Group 3 boxers.  And the opposite is also true... we don't want to compare Group 3 boxers who have had the disease for years against Group 1, newly diagnosed boxers.
  • Gender.  In general...  typically... on average...  women are not men and men are not women.  To get a fair analysis, comparing men against men and women against women is generally, typically, on average...  more relevant.  However, if a woman wants to be compared against men or if a man wants to be compared against women... we can do that.
  • Height.  In some tests, specifically in the forward reach and in the standing jump tests, height matters.  In general, a 6 foot person can reach forward further and jump further than a 5 foot person.  So, when appropriate, the PARS average for those tests will be filtered for boxers with a height plus or minus 2 inches of the subject boxer.  As an example, a 5'8" person would be shown the PARS average for people 5'6" through 5'10" only.
  • Age.  It is easy to recognize that a person 65 years of age will be more everything compared to the average of people who are 85.  Using the standing jump as our example, a person 65 should be shown the PARS average for people 63 through 67 (+/- 2 years) and using the same formula, a 85 year old person should be shown the PARS average for people 83 through 87. 

It is important to note that GGHA can be used in any combination...  GHA, GGA, etc.  Height isn't always a differentiator and in some cases, another variable might be important such as BMI.  It will be very interesting to graph results in the standing jump for Group 1 Men ages 65 to 69 by their BMI.  PARS can visually show Boxers how and why their BMI and their weight make a difference.  

The PARS GGHA Average strategy is another PARS first.  It will be integrated into the PARS 3.0 one test at a time once we have as we get enough Boxers so the results are relevant, about 2,000 Boxers.  We expect to integrate GGHA over the next 12 months.