Rainbow of Gower's similarity values for each study (Transitivity evaluation)

Illustrating the range of Gower's similarity values for each study in the network.

Usage

rainbow_similarities(
  results,
  axis_title_size = 12,
  axis_text_size = 12,
  label_size = 3.5
)

Arguments

results: An object of S3 class comp_clustering. See 'Value' in comp_clustering.
axis_title_size: A positive integer for the font size of axis title (both axes). axis_title_size determines the axis.title argument found in the theme's properties in the R-package ggplot2.
axis_text_size: A positive integer for the font size of axis text (both axes). axis_text_size determines the axis.text argument found in the theme's properties in the R-package ggplot2.
label_size: A positive integer for the font size of labels appearing on each study-specific segment. label_size determines the size argument found in the geom's aesthetic properties in the R-package ggplot2.

Value

A horizontal bar plot illustrating the range of Gower's similarity values for each study with those found in other comparisons using shades of red and green to indicate low and substantial between-comparison similarity, respectively: the darker the red, the lower the between-comparison similarity (corresponding to values close to 0), whilst the darker the green, the higher the between-comparison similarity (corresponding to values close to 1). The study names appear on the y-axis in the order they appear in results and the similarity values appear on the x-axis. Red and blue points refer to the (average) within-comparison and between-comparison similarity, respectively, for each study.

Details

The range of Gower's similarity values for each study result from calculating the Gower's dissimilarity of a study versus the remaining studies in the network for a set of clinical and methodological characteristics that may act as effect modifiers. Then, the Gower's dissimilarities are transformed into similarities by subtracting each value from 1: Gower's dissimilarities take values from 0 to 1, with 0 and 1 implying perfect similarity and perfect dissimilarity, respectively.

The unique similarity values appear as dotted, vertical, black lines on each bar.

References

Gower J. General Coefficient of Similarity and Some of Its Properties. Biometrics 1971;27(4):857–71. doi: 10.2307/2528823

Author

Loukia M. Spineli