how to check the variables which underwent the maximum change in a time course data?

Question

I have time series data of many variables (these data for these variables are coming from a high-throughput experimental studies) The time series looks like

$x \to x_1, x_2, x_3..$ which is the value of $x$ at time points $1,2,3$ respectively $y \to y_1, y_2, y_3..$ etc..

Now given such a large set of data, I would like to shortlist the set of variables which have seen the biggest jump or fall in their trend. What is the best measure to calculate this?

Kindly apologize my ignorance if it is a very trivial problem

Answer 1

Temporal trends can be well explored by regression analyses. A simple and valid approach could be to perform various linear regression analyses, testing each variable vs time. Then you can compare slopes to find variables that showed the most evident increase or decrease over time.