Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-1-2020

Keywords

JGM, JAXCC

JAX Source

JAMIA Open 2020; 3:94-103

Volume

3

Issue

1

First Page

94

Last Page

103

ISSN

2574-2531

PMID

32607491

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1093/jamiaopen/ooz067

Abstract

Objectives: Comorbidity network analysis (CNA) is a graph-theoretic approach to systems medicine based on associations revealed from disease co-occurrence data. Researchers have used CNA to explore epidemiological patterns, differentiate populations, characterize disorders, and more; but these techniques have not been comprehensively evaluated. Our objectives were to assess the stability of common CNA techniques.

Materials and Methods: We obtained seven co-occurrence data sets, most from previous CNAs, coded using several ontologies. We constructed comorbidity networks under various modeling procedures and calculated summary statistics and centrality rankings. We used regression, ordination, and rank correlation to assess these properties' sensitivity to the source of data and construction parameters.

Results: Most summary statistics were robust to variation in link determination but somewhere sensitive to the association measure. Some more effectively than others discriminated among networks constructed from different data sets. Centrality rankings, especially among hubs, were somewhat sensitive to link determination and highly sensitive to ontology. As multivariate models incorporated additional effects, comorbid associations among low-prevalence disorders weakened while those between high-prevalence disorders shifted negative.

Discussion: Pairwise CNA techniques are generally robust, but some analyses are highly sensitive to certain parameters. Multivariate approaches expose additional conceptual and technical limitations to the usual pairwise approach.

Conclusion: We conclude with a set of recommendations we believe will help CNA researchers improve the robustness of results and the potential of follow-up research.

Comments

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License.

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