Analysis

From analysis-ready dataset to results

Published

September 9, 2026

Once you have assembled your analysis dataset (Phase 12), you are ready to analyse. This section stays register-specific and practical: when to use what, which packages, and a minimal example - it does not teach statistical theory. For depth, see the Epidemiologist R Handbook, R for Data Science and DDEA’s R course (see Learning resources).

Pages in this section

Pick the pages that fit your study - not every study uses all of them.

Page Packages
Choosing a statistical analysis stats (base R; choose test and model)
Descriptive tables (Table 1) gtsummary, finalfit
Figures for publication ggplot2
Regression glm/lm, survival::clogit (matched case-control)
Time-to-event survival, survminer, tidycmprsk (Cox, competing risks)
Rates and rate ratios (Poisson) glm (Poisson), MASS::glm.nb, Epi/popEpi (incidence rate ratio, person-time)
IP weighting (IPTW and IPCW) WeightIt, cobalt (confounding + censoring/missing outcomes)
Sensitivity analyses survival (robustness checks, negative control outcome, active comparator)

Output control decides what you can compute, not just what you can send. Only aggregated results leave DST, and cells below the threshold (3 or 5 observations, depending on your project) may not be repatriated at all. That shapes the analysis itself: how finely you may stratify a table, whether a subgroup is worth running, whether a figure can show what you want. Plan for it here rather than discovering it at the end. The rules and the threshold are on Phase 14 - Export and repatriation.

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