Limitations
ulcer
SECONDARY, ULCER
Our study has an overriding limitation; the data that we analyze to showcase data reduction methodologies are unique to our study, and they are likely to differ from large complex databases that other researchers are using. This may limit the extent to which this methodologic data reduction case study is applicable to other big data scenarios. Nevertheless, we anticipate that some aspects of the methods presented can be applied to other data reduction challenges. There are some secondary study limitations relating to the pressure measurements that are central to our clinical trial. These include the challenges of data loss when patients are not in bed, unstable pressure measurements during position changes, and possibly some random ‘noise’ in the pressure data. We remind readers that this data reduction study is distinct from the data analysis for the clinical trial testing the efficacy of pressure sensing technology for pressure reduction and ulcer prevention.There are also limitations relating to our use of the Pearson correlation coefficient. It assumes a linear relationship between variables and that the variables are normally distributed. Reassuringly, our sample size of pressure values was very large and near normally distributed with very few outlier measurements (see Fig. 