ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author introduces a few basic graphic methods to visualize the secular trend of the Age-Period-Cohort (APC) data in age, in period, and in birth cohort, using a user-friendly R function for APC plots. He demonstrates the 2-dimensional (2D) and 3-dimensional (3D) surface plots with the examples of APC data. The author illustrates the plot using the lung cancer mortality rate data among US males. The 2D plot is a simple and important method to explore APC data, and may provide insight to age, period, and cohort effects as well as disease trends. Contrary to the 2D plots, the 3D plot shows how the rate changes with the age, period, and cohort simultaneously. Early work on plots of APC data can be found in L. L. Kupper et al, which provides explanation for fitting loglinear models or taking the logarithmic transformation of event rates in APC analysis.
