What is "lagging"

Lag \Lag\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Lagged; p. pr. & vb. n. Lagging.] To walk or more slowly; to stay or fall behind; to linger or loiter. ``I shall not lag behind.''
--Milton.

Syn: To loiter; linger; saunter; delay; be tardy.

Lagging \Lag"ging\, n.

1. (Mach.) The clothing (esp., an outer, wooden covering), as of a steam cylinder, applied to prevent the radiation of heat; a covering of lags; -- called also deading and cleading.

2. Lags, collectively; narrow planks extending from one rib to another in the centering of arches.

1. 1 falling behind, not keeping up the pace 2 Occurring after; indicating the later phase of n. 1 The covering of something with strips of felt, wood etc, either as insulation or for protection 2 The material so used v

2. (present participle of lag English)

n. used to wrap around pipes or boilers or laid in attics to prevent loss of heat

1. n. the act of slowing down or falling behind [syn: slowdown, retardation]

2. the time between one event, process, or period and another [syn: interim]

3. one of several thin slats of wood forming the sides of a barrel or bucket [syn: stave]

4. [also: lagging, lagged]

1. v. hang (back) or fall (behind) in movement, progress, development, etc. [syn: dawdle, fall back, fall behind]

2. lock up or confine, in or as in a jail; "The suspects were imprisoned without trial"; "the murderer was incarcerated for the rest of his life" [syn: imprison, incarcerate, immure, put behind bars, jail, jug, gaol, put away, remand]

3. throw or pitch at a mark, as with coins

4. cover with lagging to prevent heat loss; "lag pipes"

5. [also: lagging, lagged]

See lag

Lagging may refer to:

• Thermal insulation
• Lagging (epidemiology)
• Lagging indicator (economics)
• Lag

In epidemiology, lagging (or exposure lagging) means excluding the exposure in a time period before registration of an outcome. It may be motivated by that the actual outcome had actually occurred before the registration of it, and that the last exposure before registration did not contribute to the case.

For example, when studying risk factors of cancer, the cancer process may have been triggered long before actual diagnosis of cancer, and that therefore any exposure to risk factors in the lag time between may be unimportant.

It can be used to mitigate protopathic bias, that is, when a treatment for the first symptoms of a disease or other outcome appear to cause the outcome. Protopathic bias is a potential bias when there is a lag time from the first symptoms and start of treatment before actual diagnosis.