Hexamaps for Visualizing Age-Period-Cohort Data Trends

Abstract

AbstractAge-period-cohort (APC) analyses often reveal important insights into patterns of disease incidence and mortality such as cancer. Both visual and analytical APC tools are available to reveal patterns by age, period and cohort. While developing new analytical methods of APC data is an active area of research, the choices of visual tools specific to APC data has been limited. In this study, we propose a “hexamap” as a new APC specific data visualization tool. This tool uses hexagons to address the unique challenge of APC data visualization, that is cohort= period - age. The approach is further illustrated using alcohol related mortality. Flexible Open-Source functions for implementation in R is also provided.