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Study-level confidence intervals and point estimates for forest plots

Source: R/geom-forest-ci.R
geom_forest_ci.Rd

geom_forest_ci() draws a confidence interval line and a weight-proportional square for each study in a forest plot. The square area scales with the study weight, making more precise studies visually prominent.

Usage

geom_forest_ci(
  mapping = NULL,
  data = NULL,
  stat = "forest_ci",
  position = "identity",
  ...,
  ci_width = 0.3,
  point_size_range = c(1, 6),
  na.rm = FALSE,
  show.legend = NA,
  inherit.aes = TRUE
)

Arguments

mapping

Set of aesthetic mappings created by aes(). If specified and inherit.aes = TRUE (the default), it is combined with the default mapping at the top level of the plot. You must supply mapping if there is no plot mapping.

data

The data to be displayed in this layer. There are three options:

If NULL, the default, the data is inherited from the plot data as specified in the call to ggplot().

A data.frame, or other object, will override the plot data. All objects will be fortified to produce a data frame. See fortify() for which variables will be created.

A function will be called with a single argument, the plot data. The return value must be a data.frame, and will be used as the layer data. A function can be created from a formula (e.g. ~ head(.x, 10)).

stat

The statistical transformation to use on the data for this layer. When using a geom_*() function to construct a layer, the stat argument can be used to override the default coupling between geoms and stats. The stat argument accepts the following:

  • A Stat ggproto subclass, for example StatCount.

  • A string naming the stat. To give the stat as a string, strip the function name of the stat_ prefix. For example, to use stat_count(), give the stat as "count".

  • For more information and other ways to specify the stat, see the layer stat documentation.

position

A position adjustment to use on the data for this layer. This can be used in various ways, including to prevent overplotting and improving the display. The position argument accepts the following:

  • The result of calling a position function, such as position_jitter(). This method allows for passing extra arguments to the position.

  • A string naming the position adjustment. To give the position as a string, strip the function name of the position_ prefix. For example, to use position_jitter(), give the position as "jitter".

  • For more information and other ways to specify the position, see the layer position documentation.

...

Other arguments passed on to ggplot2::layer(). These are often aesthetics, used to set an aesthetic to a fixed value, like colour = "red" or linewidth = 1.

ci_width

Width of the CI line end-marks as a proportion of the spacing between study rows. Default: 0.3.

point_size_range

Minimum and maximum point size in mm. Default: c(1, 6).

na.rm

If FALSE (default), missing values are removed with a warning. If TRUE, missing values are silently removed.

show.legend

logical. Should this layer be included in the legends? NA, the default, includes if any aesthetics are mapped. FALSE never includes, and TRUE always includes. It can also be a named logical vector to finely select the aesthetics to display. To include legend keys for all levels, even when no data exists, use TRUE. If NA, all levels are shown in legend, but unobserved levels are omitted.

inherit.aes

If FALSE, overrides the default aesthetics, rather than combining with them. This is most useful for helper functions that define both data and aesthetics and shouldn't inherit behaviour from the default plot specification, e.g. annotation_borders().

Value

A ggplot2 layer.

Aesthetics

geom_forest_ci() understands the following aesthetics (required aesthetics are in bold):

  • x — point estimate

  • xmin — lower confidence limit

  • xmax — upper confidence limit

  • y — study position (usually a factor)

  • weight — study weight for square sizing

  • colour — line and square border colour (default: "black")

  • fill — square fill colour (default: "black")

  • alpha — transparency (default: 1)

  • linewidth — CI line width (default: 0.5)

  • size — override for square size; computed from weight by default

  • linetype — CI line type (default: "solid")

Examples

library(ggplot2)
df <- data.frame(
  study = c("Study 1", "Study 2", "Study 3"),
  estimate = c(0.5, 0.8, 0.3),
  lower = c(0.2, 0.6, 0.1),
  upper = c(0.8, 1.0, 0.5),
  weight = c(1, 2, 0.5)
)
ggplot(df, aes(y = study, x = estimate, xmin = lower, xmax = upper,
               weight = weight)) +
  geom_forest_ref() +
  geom_forest_ci()