The Story of Forest Plots

Contents List

• Chronology
• Remarks
• Slides
• GAZEBO's Features

Chronology

Remarks

From a very early date, there have been three requirements:

1. To produce forest plots with any choice of endpoint, stratification and treatment comparison from a GALAXY overview database with the fewest possible button-pushes, plus the ability to run huge overnight batches unattended.

 
• This is godsend in the run-up to a frantic overview meeting. Operational simplicity means that anybody can produce a decent plot from anywhere in that "data cube" for any overview in a few minutes.

 
2. To produce forest plots quickly from tables of trial results or stratum summaries.
 
• From the very beginning, many different CTSU projects have needed forest plots. For randomised trials (O - E) and V are often already available or else are just based on the event counts. Some epidemiological questions need special tricks.
 
3. Forest plots must be as near to publication quality as possible.
 
• The standard appearance of the plots has been refined in the crucible of all the typographical snarl-ups, obfuscations and aesthetic travesties possible in the known universe. There are about three main cosmetic variants, each favoured by different groups. The fun begins when authors inevitably decide to become graphical re-designers at the late stages of a draft manuscript, or just before flying off to an important meeting.

Slides

• The anatomy of a forest plot [21kb GIF image]
• Creating a forest plot using GALAXY [24kb GIF image]

GAZEBO's Features

Huh? gazebo ?
Graunch begins:
 1: "steering-file endpoint stratification" descriptor
 2: -4: direct input, studies; -3: direct input, studies (compact); -2: direct input, categories; -1: direct input, overviews;
    0: no serial and ignore data flags; 1: serial (normal); 2: serial, include no-data entries; 3: show but don't use serial;
    4: show but don't use serial, and include no-data entries; 5: serial, include post-cutoff; 6: serial, include no-data and
    post-cutoff;
 3: -9: add N0/N-/N+/N?, <40/40-49 (AN); -8: add N0/N-/N+/N?, <40/40-49, 50-59/60-69 (AN) or N0/N-/N+/N?, 50-59/60-69 (ANE); -7: add
    40-44/45-49, 50-54/55-59 (AE) or N0/N-/N+/N?, <40/40-49 (AN) or N0/N-/N+/N? (NE, ANE or ANE3) or N0/N-/N+/N?, ages, ER+/++
    (ANE2); -6: add A/B, discard D/other/? (DS) or add D/other (SS) or <40/40-44/45-49, 50-54/55-59 (AE) or <40/40-49 (A) or
    N0/N-/N+/N? (AN) or N0/N-/N+/N?, ER+/ER? (NE or ANE) or N0/N-/N+/N?, ages (ANE2); -5: add N0/N-, N1-3/N4+/N? (N) or ages (AN) or
    ER+/ER++/ER?, ages (E) or PR+/PR++/PR?, ages (P) or ER+/ER?, ages (NE) or PR+/PR?, ages (NP) or ER+/ER?, PR+/PR?, ages (EP) or
    40-44/45-49, 50-54/55-59, ER+/ER? (AE) or <40/40-49, 50-59/60-69 (A) or 50-59/60-69 (ANE) or ages and nodes, collapse ER (ANE2)
    or ages and nodes (ANL, ATN, ATN2 or ANG); -4: add ER+/ER++ (E) or PR+/PR++ (P) or <40/40-49, 60-69/70+ (A or AN) or 60-69/70+
    (M) or <40/40-44/45-49, 50-54/55-59, ER+/ER? (AE) or 50-59/60-69, ER+/ER? (ANE); -3: add 60-69/70+ (A) or ER+/ER++/ER? (E) or
    PR+/PR++/PR? (P) or ER+/ER? (AE or NE) or PR+/PR? (NP) or <40/40-49 (AN) or ER+/ER? (ANE) or ER+/ER++ (EA) or ages, M0/M? (AS);
    -2: add ages, re-order (N) or add ER+/ER++, ages (E) or PR+/PR++, ages (P) or <40/40-49, 60-69/70+ + (AE) or 60-69/70+ (AN) or
    stages (AS) or ER?/ER+/ER++ (EA) or N0/N-/N+/N? (ANM or AN3); -1: add ages (N, E, P, NN, PN, NE, NP, EP, AS, L or G); 0: strata
    as found; 1: add up frames; 2: add up frames and on-page strata
 4: 0: normal; 1: omit no-death-cause; 2: omit death-cause; 3: omit no-recurrence-site; 4: omit recurrence-site trials/strata; 5:
    show all junk numerators; 6: show tabular numerators
 5: 0: normal (0+); otherwise, year range, e.g. 0-0, 0-2, 2-4, 3, 5+ etc
 6: 0: normal; 1: larger characters in lines (default for 'direct input')
 7: 0: normal; 1: V5::UDV1:[RG]; 2: V1::UDV1:[RG] instuffing
 8: 0: normal; 1: outstuffing; 2: read vertical lock file; 3: write vertical lock file
 9: 0: normal; 1: double-size boxes; 2: quad-size boxes
10: 0: normal; 1: no overall-doubling for imbalanced trials (indirect) / put heading `adjusted' (direct)
11: -1: lock bottom of page; 0: normal (100%); otherwise, vertical scaling factor (range 1-100plus)
12: 0: normal; 1: toggle presence of 'information' column; 2: wide 'information' column; 3: wider 'information' column
13: 0: normal; 1: crude titles only; (2+: special options)
14: 0: annual odds; 1: daily odds (default for PC; N.B: must tally with BLACKBOX setting); 2: crude odds; 3: unspecified
15: 0: reductions, 'SE'; 1: reductions, '±'; 2: ratios, 'SE'; 3: ratios, '±'; 4: automatic, 'SE'; 5: automatic, '±'
16: 0: normal; 1: omit subtotals; 2: omit grand total; 3: omit both
17: 0: normal; 1: show actual p-values > 0·1
18: 0: normal; 1: show heterogeneity for subtotals; 2: show trend for subtotals
19: 0: normal; 1: show dotted lines for subtotals
20: 0: normal; 1: show years only; 2: omit suffices to year codes
21: 0: normal; 1: omit (O-E) and V columns; 2: omit events columns
22: -1: abscissa scale logarithmic 0·1 - 10; 0: normal; 1: linear 0·25 - 1·75; 2: linear 0·5 - 1·5
23: 0: normal; 1: show 1 d.p. for subtotal reductions
24: 0: normal; 1: 95% intervals; 2: 99% intervals
25: 0: normal; 1: toggle person-years
26: 0: normal; 1: toggle presence of individual reductions/ratios
27: 0: normal; 1: open boxes for the 'non-updated'
28: 0: normal; 1: omit caption letters and underlining

Output: descriptorX
Video:  descriptorV
Completed.
Brain power .014 - unacceptable
Huh?