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meghanforr.bsky.social
Meg Forrest 🌳🌲🌳
@meghanforr.bsky.social
75 followers 100 following 12 posts
Epi research associate + information specialist
Former neuro critical care nurse

Interested in stroke 🧠 epi research (with/&) causal inference methods

she/her
📍 Berlin

#EpiSky #Epidemiology #CausalInference #PublicHealth #AcademicSky
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meghanforr.bsky.social
In observational, causally-aimed neurology research, we investigated 🔎
❓ How often Grotta bars are used
❓ How often are they adjusted
❓ What adjustment methods are used

We also created infographics to help readers interpret these graphs, and guide authors while generating them

#stroke #causalsky
February 6, 2025 at 4:08 PM
meghanforr.bsky.social
Simply showing a graph with observed outcome data only (unadjusted visualization) can be very misleading! Like we adjust the effect measures of interest for confounding, so too should we present adjusted versions of these bars alongside the crude/unadjusted ones.

#metaresearch #academicsky #episky
Figure comparing modified Rankin Scale (mRS) distributions for patients discharged home vs. not discharged home, before and after adjustment using inverse probability of treatment weighting. The figure consists of two stacked bar charts: • Panel A (Unadjusted): Shows the unadjusted distribution of mRS scores for two groups—patients discharged home and not discharged home. • The discharged home group has a higher proportion of patients with lower mRS scores (0–2, represented by dark blue to light blue), while the not discharged home group has a greater proportion of patients with higher mRS scores (3–6, represented by yellow, orange, and red). • The numbers inside the bars indicate percentages of patients in each mRS category. • Panel B (Adjusted using inverse probability of treatment weighting): Shows the same comparison after statistical adjustment. • The differences between groups are reduced, with more similar distributions of mRS scores between the discharged and not discharged home groups. The color legend on the right corresponds to different mRS scores, ranging from 0 (dark blue, no symptoms) to 6 (dark red, death).
February 6, 2025 at 4:08 PM
meghanforr.bsky.social
Grotta bars are a powerful tool to visualize and compare ordinal variables. They’re often used to depict functional outcomes in #neurology research. Perhaps the most memorable (and their namesake) is from the original #thrombolysis trials

www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....
Four stacked proportional bar charts comparing the outcomes of stroke patients treated with t-PA versus a placebo. Each of the four graphs has a different functional outcome (NIHSS, Barthel Index, mRS, or Glasgow Outcome Scale). Each chart represents patient percentages across different severity categories, comparing the intervention "t-PA" to placebo.
February 6, 2025 at 4:08 PM