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These functions determine which items in a vector can be considered (the start of) a new episode, based on the argument episode_days. This can be used to determine clinical episodes for any epidemiological analysis. The get_episode() function returns the index number of the episode per group, while the is_new_episode() function returns values TRUE/FALSE to indicate whether an item in a vector is the start of a new episode.

Usage

get_episode(x, episode_days, ...)

is_new_episode(x, episode_days, ...)

Arguments

x

vector of dates (class Date or POSIXt), will be sorted internally to determine episodes

episode_days

required episode length in days, can also be less than a day or Inf, see Details

...

ignored, only in place to allow future extensions

Value

  • get_episode(): a double vector

  • is_new_episode(): a logical vector

Details

Dates are first sorted from old to new. The oldest date will mark the start of the first episode. After this date, the next date will be marked that is at least episode_days days later than the start of the first episode. From that second marked date on, the next date will be marked that is at least episode_days days later than the start of the second episode which will be the start of the third episode, and so on. Before the vector is being returned, the original order will be restored.

The first_isolate() function is a wrapper around the is_new_episode() function, but is more efficient for data sets containing microorganism codes or names and allows for different isolate selection methods.

The dplyr package is not required for these functions to work, but these functions do support variable grouping and work conveniently inside dplyr verbs such as filter(), mutate() and summarise().

See also

Examples

# `example_isolates` is a data set available in the AMR package.
# See ?example_isolates
df <- example_isolates[sample(seq_len(2000), size = 200), ]

get_episode(df$date, episode_days = 60) # indices
#>   [1] 37 39  3 44 61 24 46 32 31 21 56 51 54 56 47 15 39 16 60 51 40 43 57 26 34
#>  [26] 51 62 31 14 57  8 65 48 61 13 10  9 42  2 45 64 11 31  1 59 15 56  4 14 59
#>  [51]  3 55 41 48 32  6 19 33  3 46 21 38 43 46 33 38 32 37 10 63 44 51 59  6 14
#>  [76]  8 22  1 27  1 37 44 11  9 52 17 26 10  7 65 27 28 59 51 43 62 33 61 50 62
#> [101] 34 27 46 12 46 35 60 34 20 39  5  2 25  2 35 39 46 52 55  2 30 11 16 43  9
#> [126] 32 10 44 18 34 23 57 21 47 19 16 44 26 21 13  8 27 41 17 16 28 13  9 34  3
#> [151] 12 19 53 16 14 22 22 42 16 41 49 50 63 62 29 29 62 58  6 18 55  6 61 11 22
#> [176] 16 30 12 12 34 39 11  9  8 62 55 39 58 38 60 36  1 26  7 34 57 13 12 47  5
is_new_episode(df$date, episode_days = 60) # TRUE/FALSE
#>   [1] FALSE FALSE  TRUE FALSE  TRUE  TRUE FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE
#>  [13]  TRUE  TRUE FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE  TRUE FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE  TRUE
#>  [25] FALSE FALSE FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE  TRUE FALSE  TRUE FALSE  TRUE  TRUE
#>  [37] FALSE FALSE FALSE  TRUE  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE  TRUE
#>  [49] FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE
#>  [61]  TRUE FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE  TRUE FALSE  TRUE FALSE  TRUE FALSE  TRUE
#>  [73] FALSE FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE
#>  [85]  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE  TRUE  TRUE FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE  TRUE
#>  [97]  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE  TRUE FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE
#> [109]  TRUE FALSE  TRUE FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE  TRUE  TRUE
#> [121]  TRUE FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE  TRUE FALSE  TRUE FALSE
#> [133] FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE  TRUE
#> [145] FALSE  TRUE FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE
#> [157] FALSE  TRUE FALSE  TRUE  TRUE  TRUE FALSE FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE  TRUE
#> [169]  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE  TRUE  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE  TRUE FALSE
#> [181] FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE  TRUE FALSE
#> [193] FALSE  TRUE FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE  TRUE FALSE

# filter on results from the third 60-day episode only, using base R
df[which(get_episode(df$date, 60) == 3), ]
#> # A tibble: 4 × 46
#>   date       patient   age gender ward  mo           PEN   OXA   FLC   AMX  
#>   <date>     <chr>   <dbl> <chr>  <chr> <mo>         <rsi> <rsi> <rsi> <rsi>
#> 1 2002-08-31 149442     80 F      ICU   B_STPHY_AURS R     NA    S     R    
#> 2 2002-09-23 F35553     51 M      ICU   B_STPHY_AURS S     NA    S     NA   
#> 3 2002-10-20 F35553     51 M      ICU   B_STPHY_AURS S     NA    S     NA   
#> 4 2002-10-18 E55128     57 F      ICU   B_STPHY_AURS R     NA    S     R    
#> # … with 36 more variables: AMC <rsi>, AMP <rsi>, TZP <rsi>, CZO <rsi>,
#> #   FEP <rsi>, CXM <rsi>, FOX <rsi>, CTX <rsi>, CAZ <rsi>, CRO <rsi>,
#> #   GEN <rsi>, TOB <rsi>, AMK <rsi>, KAN <rsi>, TMP <rsi>, SXT <rsi>,
#> #   NIT <rsi>, FOS <rsi>, LNZ <rsi>, CIP <rsi>, MFX <rsi>, VAN <rsi>,
#> #   TEC <rsi>, TCY <rsi>, TGC <rsi>, DOX <rsi>, ERY <rsi>, CLI <rsi>,
#> #   AZM <rsi>, IPM <rsi>, MEM <rsi>, MTR <rsi>, CHL <rsi>, COL <rsi>,
#> #   MUP <rsi>, RIF <rsi>

# the functions also work for less than a day, e.g. to include one per hour:
get_episode(c(
  Sys.time(),
  Sys.time() + 60 * 60
),
episode_days = 1 / 24
)
#> [1] 1 2

# \donttest{
if (require("dplyr")) {
  # is_new_episode() can also be used in dplyr verbs to determine patient
  # episodes based on any (combination of) grouping variables:
  df %>%
    mutate(condition = sample(
      x = c("A", "B", "C"),
      size = 200,
      replace = TRUE
    )) %>%
    group_by(condition) %>%
    mutate(new_episode = is_new_episode(date, 365)) %>%
    select(patient, date, condition, new_episode)
}
#> # A tibble: 200 × 4
#> # Groups:   condition [3]
#>    patient date       condition new_episode
#>    <chr>   <date>     <chr>     <lgl>      
#>  1 AD0350  2010-11-12 B         FALSE      
#>  2 988763  2011-04-24 C         FALSE      
#>  3 149442  2002-08-31 A         FALSE      
#>  4 672020  2013-04-01 A         FALSE      
#>  5 CD8C33  2017-02-25 C         TRUE       
#>  6 965996  2007-12-03 C         TRUE       
#>  7 E19748  2013-07-18 A         FALSE      
#>  8 E24BF1  2009-10-03 A         FALSE      
#>  9 144549  2009-09-01 C         FALSE      
#> 10 262220  2007-02-23 C         FALSE      
#> # … with 190 more rows
if (require("dplyr")) {
  df %>%
    group_by(ward, patient) %>%
    transmute(date,
      patient,
      new_index = get_episode(date, 60),
      new_logical = is_new_episode(date, 60)
    )
}
#> # A tibble: 200 × 5
#> # Groups:   ward, patient [175]
#>    ward       date       patient new_index new_logical
#>    <chr>      <date>     <chr>       <dbl> <lgl>      
#>  1 Clinical   2010-11-12 AD0350          1 TRUE       
#>  2 Clinical   2011-04-24 988763          1 TRUE       
#>  3 ICU        2002-08-31 149442          1 TRUE       
#>  4 Clinical   2013-04-01 672020          1 TRUE       
#>  5 Clinical   2017-02-25 CD8C33          1 TRUE       
#>  6 Clinical   2007-12-03 965996          1 TRUE       
#>  7 Clinical   2013-07-18 E19748          1 TRUE       
#>  8 Clinical   2009-10-03 E24BF1          1 TRUE       
#>  9 Clinical   2009-09-01 144549          1 TRUE       
#> 10 Outpatient 2007-02-23 262220          1 TRUE       
#> # … with 190 more rows
if (require("dplyr")) {
  df %>%
    group_by(ward) %>%
    summarise(
      n_patients = n_distinct(patient),
      n_episodes_365 = sum(is_new_episode(date, episode_days = 365)),
      n_episodes_60 = sum(is_new_episode(date, episode_days = 60)),
      n_episodes_30 = sum(is_new_episode(date, episode_days = 30))
    )
}
#> # A tibble: 3 × 5
#>   ward       n_patients n_episodes_365 n_episodes_60 n_episodes_30
#>   <chr>           <int>          <int>         <int>         <int>
#> 1 Clinical          114             15            55            75
#> 2 ICU                55             13            37            44
#> 3 Outpatient          6              5             6             6
if (require("dplyr")) {

  # grouping on patients and microorganisms leads to the same
  # results as first_isolate() when using 'episode-based':
  x <- df %>%
    filter_first_isolate(
      include_unknown = TRUE,
      method = "episode-based"
    )

  y <- df %>%
    group_by(patient, mo) %>%
    filter(is_new_episode(date, 365)) %>%
    ungroup()

  identical(x, y)
}
#> Including isolates from ICU.
#> [1] TRUE
if (require("dplyr")) {

  # but is_new_episode() has a lot more flexibility than first_isolate(),
  # since you can now group on anything that seems relevant:
  df %>%
    group_by(patient, mo, ward) %>%
    mutate(flag_episode = is_new_episode(date, 365)) %>%
    select(group_vars(.), flag_episode)
}
#> # A tibble: 200 × 4
#> # Groups:   patient, mo, ward [179]
#>    patient mo            ward       flag_episode
#>    <chr>   <mo>          <chr>      <lgl>       
#>  1 AD0350  B_ESCHR_COLI  Clinical   TRUE        
#>  2 988763  B_STPHY_AURS  Clinical   TRUE        
#>  3 149442  B_STPHY_AURS  ICU        TRUE        
#>  4 672020  B_STPHY_EPDR  Clinical   TRUE        
#>  5 CD8C33  B_STPHY_HMNS  Clinical   TRUE        
#>  6 965996  B_STRPT_PNMN  Clinical   TRUE        
#>  7 E19748  B_ESCHR_COLI  Clinical   TRUE        
#>  8 E24BF1  B_STPHY_HMNS  Clinical   TRUE        
#>  9 144549  B_ENTRBC_CLOC Clinical   TRUE        
#> 10 262220  B_ESCHR_COLI  Outpatient TRUE        
#> # … with 190 more rows
# }