Hi Everybody,
I have a dataset containing the results of a survey asking doctors to rate 6
drugs on 24 separate attributes (each doctor therefore provides answers to
24*6=144 answers). All ratings are on a 1 to 7 scale with end anchors along
the lines of 'rubbish' and 'brilliant'.
I've managed to manipulate my data so that I can apply Stata's 'Kap' command
to calculate Kappa for each drug separately across all doctors. I can then
compare these results across the drugs to see which has achieved the
greatest doctor consensus. My problem is that in calculating these kappa
values (because there are more than two raters) Stata has not allowed me to
apply the 'wgt(w)' and 'absolute' options and consequently in calculating
Kappa (I believe) if one doctor scores a variable 1 and another doctor
scores the same variable 7 then this is no different to the doctors'
scoring a close 6 and 7 in terms of calculating Kappa.
The upshot is as it stands I don't think it's worth reporting these Kappa
scores.
If I have manageable number of doctors I could try and form every possible
pairwise doctor combination possible, calculate kappa for each such two way
doctor combination (using the 'wgt(w)' and 'absolute' options) and then
average these Kappa results to give a representative value.
I've written the code below to accomplish this. There are ten doctors, 6
drugs - this makes 60 variables (v1 through v60). Observations represent
attributes (therefore 24 observations). My code works because my data is
such that the variables v1 - v10 hold the 10 doctors scores on the first
drug (one variable for each doctor); v11-v20 hold the same doctors score on
the second drug, and so on.
program stekappa
display c(current_time)
local ndocs = 10 //this and next line are the only two user input lines
local ndrugs 6 //number of drugs
local ndocs1 = `ndocs'-1 //need this as forvalues loop won't accept start
value `ndocs'-1
local w=0 //w will be row indicator used to input results in matrix
local npair =0 //will hold number of exhaustive paired doctor comparisons
forvalues np = `ndocs1'(-1)1{
local npair =`npair' + `np' //calculate number of exhaustive paired doctor
comparisons
}
matrix rkappa=J(`npair',`ndrugs',0) //initiate matrix to hold results to
zero
forvalues i =`ndocs'(-1)2{ //this with next forvalues loop generates all
exhaustive doc pairs
local k=`i'-1 //need this as forvalues loop won't accept end value `i'-1
forvalues j=1(1)`k'{
local ++w
forvalues d=1(1)`ndrugs'{ //this used to cycle through the drugs
local di = `i'+ ((`d'-1)*`ndocs') //applies given dataset variable setup see
email above
local dj = `j'+ ((`d'-1)*`ndocs') //second variable for use in Kap command
below
quietly kap v`di' v`dj' in 2/26, wgt(w) absolute //run the kap command for
the paired docs
matrix rkappa[`w',`d'] = r(kappa) //save the //store the kappa value in the
matrix
}
}
}
svmat rkappa //convert the columns of the matrix into data variables
means rkappa1 - rkappa`ndrugs' //find the means of these data variables
display c(current_time)
end
I'm new to programming Stata and I think my code could be written to be
quite a bit faster. Any advice on how to speed it up would be most
appreciated. This is important to me as I'd like it to be able to cope with
say 100 doctors.
What I'd really like though is if someone is clever enough to write a good
sampling scheme program to deal with even larger numbers of doctors, when
computing every single paired doctor comparison isn't possible. This does
not look easy to me as the way the data looks like it has to be set up to
make use of the kap command (with the wgt(w) option), I need to sample on
variables not observations.
Any help/guidance/tips most appreciated.
Many thanks to all who have read this far down.
Steve
Stephen Kay
Head of Statistics
Adelphi Group Products
www.adelphigroup.com
Adelphi retains ownership of all data and fieldwork materials. In accordance
with the company's Terms and Conditions, written prior approval must be
obtained with regard to any use of the data in any items submitted for
publication or for use in marketing materials.
DISCLAIMER: The information in this message is confidential and may be
legally privileged. It is intended solely for the addressee. Access to this
message by anyone else is unauthorised. If you are not the intended
recipient, any disclosure, copying, or distribution of the message, or any
action or omission taken by you in reliance on it, is prohibited and may be
unlawful. Please immediately contact the sender if you have received this
message in error. Thank you.
*
* 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/
