Finalfit, knitr and R Markdown for quick results

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Thank you for the many requests to provide some extra info on how best to get finalfit results out of RStudio, and particularly into Microsoft Word.

Here is how.

Make sure you are on the most up-to-date version of finalfit.

devtools::install_github("ewenharrison/finalfit")

What follows is for demonstration purposes and is not meant to illustrate model building.

Does a tumour characteristic (differentiation) predict 5-year survival?

Demographics table

First explore variable of interest (exposure) by making it the dependent.

library(finalfit)
library(dplyr)

dependent = "differ.factor"

# Specify explanatory variables of interest
explanatory = c("age", "sex.factor", 
  "extent.factor", "obstruct.factor", 
  "nodes")

Note this useful alternative way of specifying explanatory variable lists:

colon_s %>% 
  select(age, sex.factor, 
  extent.factor, obstruct.factor, nodes) %>% 
  names() -> explanatory

Look at associations between our exposure and other explanatory variables. Include missing data.

colon_s %>% 
  summary_factorlist(dependent, explanatory, 
  p=TRUE, na_include=TRUE)

label              levels        Well    Moderate       Poor      p
       Age (years)           Mean (SD) 60.2 (12.8) 59.9 (11.7)  59 (12.8)  0.788
               Sex              Female   51 (11.6)  314 (71.7)  73 (16.7)  0.400
                                  Male    42 (9.0)  349 (74.6)  77 (16.5)       
  Extent of spread           Submucosa    5 (25.0)   12 (60.0)   3 (15.0)  0.081
                                Muscle   12 (11.8)   78 (76.5)  12 (11.8)       
                                Serosa   76 (10.2)  542 (72.8) 127 (17.0)       
                   Adjacent structures     0 (0.0)   31 (79.5)   8 (20.5)       
       Obstruction                  No    69 (9.7)  531 (74.4) 114 (16.0)  0.110
                                   Yes   19 (11.0)  122 (70.9)  31 (18.0)       
                               Missing    5 (25.0)   10 (50.0)   5 (25.0)       
             nodes           Mean (SD)   2.7 (2.2)   3.6 (3.4)  4.7 (4.4) 

Note missing data in obstruct.factor. We will drop this variable for now (again, this is for demonstration only). Also that nodes has not been labelled.
There are small numbers in some variables generating chisq.test warnings (predicted less than 5 in any cell). Generate final table.

Hmisc::label(colon_s$nodes) = "Lymph nodes involved"
explanatory = c("age", "sex.factor", 
  "extent.factor", "nodes")

colon_s %>% 
  summary_factorlist(dependent, explanatory, 
  p=TRUE, na_include=TRUE, 
  add_dependent_label=TRUE) -> table1
table1

Dependent: Differentiation                            Well    Moderate       Poor      p
                Age (years)           Mean (SD) 60.2 (12.8) 59.9 (11.7)  59 (12.8)  0.788
                        Sex              Female   51 (11.6)  314 (71.7)  73 (16.7)  0.400
                                           Male    42 (9.0)  349 (74.6)  77 (16.5)       
           Extent of spread           Submucosa    5 (25.0)   12 (60.0)   3 (15.0)  0.081
                                         Muscle   12 (11.8)   78 (76.5)  12 (11.8)       
                                         Serosa   76 (10.2)  542 (72.8) 127 (17.0)       
                            Adjacent structures     0 (0.0)   31 (79.5)   8 (20.5)       
       Lymph nodes involved           Mean (SD)   2.7 (2.2)   3.6 (3.4)  4.7 (4.4) 

Logistic regression table

Now examine explanatory variables against outcome. Check plot runs ok.

explanatory = c("age", "sex.factor", 
  "extent.factor", "nodes", 
  "differ.factor")
dependent = "mort_5yr"
colon_s %>% 
  finalfit(dependent, explanatory, 
  dependent_label_prefix = "") -> table2

Mortality 5 year                           Alive        Died           OR (univariable)         OR (multivariable)
          Age (years)           Mean (SD) 59.8 (11.4) 59.9 (12.5)  1.00 (0.99-1.01, p=0.986)  1.01 (1.00-1.02, p=0.195)
                  Sex              Female  243 (47.6)  194 (48.0)                          -                          -
                                     Male  268 (52.4)  210 (52.0)  0.98 (0.76-1.27, p=0.889)  0.98 (0.74-1.30, p=0.885)
     Extent of spread           Submucosa    16 (3.1)     4 (1.0)                          -                          -
                                   Muscle   78 (15.3)    25 (6.2)  1.28 (0.42-4.79, p=0.681)  1.28 (0.37-5.92, p=0.722)
                                   Serosa  401 (78.5)  349 (86.4) 3.48 (1.26-12.24, p=0.027) 3.13 (1.01-13.76, p=0.076)
                      Adjacent structures    16 (3.1)    26 (6.4) 6.50 (1.98-25.93, p=0.004) 6.04 (1.58-30.41, p=0.015)
 Lymph nodes involved           Mean (SD)   2.7 (2.4)   4.9 (4.4)  1.24 (1.18-1.30, p

Odds ratio plot

colon_s %>% 
  or_plot(dependent, explanatory, 
  breaks = c(0.5, 1, 5, 10, 20, 30))

To MS Word via knitr/R Markdown

Important. In most R Markdown set-ups, environment objects require to be saved and loaded to R Markdown document.

# Save objects for knitr/markdown
save(table1, table2, dependent, explanatory, file = "out.rda")

We use RStudio Server Pro set-up on Ubuntu. But these instructions should work fine for most/all RStudio/Markdown default set-ups.

In RStudio, select File > New File > R Markdown.

A useful template file is produced by default. Try hitting knit to Word on the knitr button at the top of the .Rmd script window.

Now paste this into the file:

---
title: "Example knitr/R Markdown document"
author: "Ewen Harrison"
date: "22/5/2018"
output:
  word_document: default
---

```{r setup, include=FALSE}
# Load data into global environment. 
library(finalfit)
library(dplyr)
library(knitr)
load("out.rda")
```

## Table 1 - Demographics
```{r table1, echo = FALSE, results='asis'}
kable(table1, row.names=FALSE, align=c("l", "l", "r", "r", "r", "r"))
```

## Table 2 - Association between tumour factors and 5 year mortality
```{r table2, echo = FALSE, results='asis'}
kable(table2, row.names=FALSE, align=c("l", "l", "r", "r", "r", "r"))
```

## Figure 1 - Association between tumour factors and 5 year mortality
```{r figure1, echo = FALSE}
colon_s %>% 
  or_plot(dependent, explanatory)
```

It’s ok, but not great.

Create Word template file

Now, edit the Word template. Click on a table. The style should be compact. Right click > Modify... > font size = 9. Alter heading and text styles in the same way as desired. Save this as template.docx. Upload to your project folder. Add this reference to the .Rmd YAML heading, as below. Make sure you get the space correct.

The plot also doesn’t look quite right and it prints with warning messages. Experiment with fig.width to get it looking right.

Now paste this into your .Rmd file and run:

---
title: "Example knitr/R Markdown document"
author: "Ewen Harrison"
date: "21/5/2018"
output:
  word_document:
    reference_docx: template.docx  
---

```{r setup, include=FALSE}
# Load data into global environment. 
library(finalfit)
library(dplyr)
library(knitr)
load("out.rda")
```

## Table 1 - Demographics
```{r table1, echo = FALSE, results='asis'}
kable(table1, row.names=FALSE, align=c("l", "l", "r", "r", "r", "r"))
```

## Table 2 - Association between tumour factors and 5 year mortality
```{r table2, echo = FALSE, results='asis'}
kable(table2, row.names=FALSE, align=c("l", "l", "r", "r", "r", "r"))
```

## Figure 1 - Association between tumour factors and 5 year mortality
```{r figure1, echo = FALSE, warning=FALSE, message=FALSE, fig.width=10}
colon_s %>% 
  or_plot(dependent, explanatory)
```

This is now looking good for me, and further tweaks can be made.

To PDF via knitr/R Markdown

Default settings for PDF:

---
title: "Example knitr/R Markdown document"
author: "Ewen Harrison"
date: "21/5/2018"
output:
  pdf_document: default
---

```{r setup, include=FALSE}
# Load data into global environment. 
library(finalfit)
library(dplyr)
library(knitr)
load("out.rda")
```

## Table 1 - Demographics
```{r table1, echo = FALSE, results='asis'}
kable(table1, row.names=FALSE, align=c("l", "l", "r", "r", "r", "r"))
```

## Table 2 - Association between tumour factors and 5 year mortality
```{r table2, echo = FALSE, results='asis'}
kable(table2, row.names=FALSE, align=c("l", "l", "r", "r", "r", "r"))
```

## Figure 1 - Association between tumour factors and 5 year mortality
```{r figure1, echo = FALSE}
colon_s %>% 
  or_plot(dependent, explanatory)
```

Again, ok but not great.

We can fix the plot in exactly the same way. But the table is off the side of the page. For this we use the kableExtra package. Install this in the normal manner. You may also want to alter the margins of your page using geometry in the preamble.

---
title: "Example knitr/R Markdown document"
author: "Ewen Harrison"
date: "21/5/2018"
output:
  pdf_document: default
geometry: margin=0.75in
---

```{r setup, include=FALSE}
# Load data into global environment. 
library(finalfit)
library(dplyr)
library(knitr)
library(kableExtra)
load("out.rda")
```

## Table 1 - Demographics
```{r table1, echo = FALSE, results='asis'}
kable(table1, row.names=FALSE, align=c("l", "l", "r", "r", "r", "r"),
						booktabs=TRUE)
```

## Table 2 - Association between tumour factors and 5 year mortality
```{r table2, echo = FALSE, results='asis'}
kable(table2, row.names=FALSE, align=c("l", "l", "r", "r", "r", "r"),
			booktabs=TRUE) %>% 
	kable_styling(font_size=8)
```

## Figure 1 - Association between tumour factors and 5 year mortality
```{r figure1, echo = FALSE, warning=FALSE, message=FALSE, fig.width=10}
colon_s %>% 
  or_plot(dependent, explanatory)
```

This is now looking pretty good for me as well.

There you have it. A pretty quick workflow to get final results into Word and a PDF.

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