Lee Sieswerda
> One sees axis breaks in epidemiology, though not all that
> often. For
> example, one might be interested in graphing the weekly incidence of
> influenza over several seasons. One may want to show that
> Influenza B
> strains were more common during the inter-epidemic periods,
> while Influenza
> A strains were more common during the epidemic periods. If
> there were no
> axis break, then the axis required to show the high
> incidence rate during
> the epidemic periods would make it difficult to see the
> difference between
> the A and B strains during the low-incidence inter-epidemic
> periods. There
> are other graphical solutions, to be sure, but the axis
> break is a good
> solution for this sort of thing. For clarity, it is
> essential to break the
> bar as well as the axis.
Interesting, and I don't doubt that easy and effective comparison
can be tricky.
However, if the aim is comparison how far is that hindered
as well as helped by the scale break?
Does anyone in epidemiology use square root scales (given
that zeros are perhaps common)?
Nick
[email protected]
*
* For searches and help try:
* http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html
* http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
* http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
