Glossary: J to M

Life expectancy: The average age that a person is expected to live to. As derived from a period life table, it assumes that a person experiences the age-specific mortality rates of a given period from a given age onwards. 

Logic model: Diagrams showing hypothesised cause and effect relationships between short-, medium- and long- term outcomes. 

Longitudinal research: A research method that involves a sample of data being collected repeatedly for the same individuals over time, possibly for many years. 

Meta-analysis: A statistical method of combining data from multiple studies.  

Mind-mapping: A diagram to visually organise information. Used to show the relationships between causes of the problem and the problem itself.  

Modifiable risk factor: A risk factor that can be reduced to some extent by an intervention. Examples include smoking behaviour, alcohol intake, physical inactivity.  

Modelling: process of creating idealised and simplified map or schematic of a real-world issue or problem. 

Mortality: Death, expressed either in terms of the number of people dying or as a proportion of a specified population dying in a specified period.  

Multi-perspective approach diagrams: Similar to rich pictures in that they enable the visualisation of multiple perspectives. Useful at the beginning of intervention development to define the problem.