Constructing UpSet plot for survey data with weights using SAS and R software

Abstract

There is a lack of data visualization tools, such as UpSet plot, suitable for survey data collected via complex sampling. Ignoring the design specifications when plotting the data could result in ambiguous findings. We discuss a two-step approach that can be used to construct the UpSet plots of weighted frequencies and relative weighted frequencies (percentages). In the first step we compute weighted frequencies corresponding to all possible intersection sets using the SAS® Survey Package software. In the second step, we import the SAS output table in R and use it to construct the UpSet plots in R. We illustrate the application of the two-step method in the study of perceived reasons for e-cigarette use among current e-cigarette users. In the study we analyzed reports of adults (n = 3,614) who responded to the 2014–15 Tobacco Use Supplement to the Current Population Survey. The UpSet plots were constructed to identify the most commonly reported sets of reasons for e-cigarette use. We expect that the discussed method can be adopted for analysis of data from other complex surveys and thus, offer a valuable tool for constructing UpSet plots of intersection sets based on survey data with weights.