Creating effective interrupted time series graphs: Review and recommendations.

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Interrupted Time Series (ITS) studies may be used to assess the impact of an interruption, such as an intervention or exposure. The data from such studies are particularly amenable to visual display and, when clearly depicted, can readily show the short- and long-term impact of an interruption. Further, well-constructed graphs allow data to be extracted using digitizing software, which can facilitate their inclusion in systematic reviews and meta-analyses. AIM: We provide recommendations for graphing ITS data, examine the properties of plots presented in ITS studies, and provide examples employing our recommendations. METHODS AND RESULTS: Graphing recommendations from seminal d..