Turkiye Klinikleri Journal of Biostatistics

.: ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Avrupa Ülkeleri ve COVID-19 İlişkisinin Çok Boyutlu Ölçekleme ile Standartlaştırmanın Etkisinin İncelenerek Değerlendirilmesi: Analitik Araştırma
Evaluating the Relationship Between European Countries and COVID-19 by Examining the Effect of Standardization with Multidimensional Scaling: Analytical Research
Arda UZUNOĞLUa
aSerbest, Kocaeli, Türkiye
Turkiye Klinikleri J Biostat. 2025;17(2):63-71
doi: 10.5336/biostatic.2025-113367
Article Language: TR
Full Text
ÖZET
 Amaç: Bu çalışmada, koronavirüs hastalığı-2019 pandemisinin yaşandığı 2020 yılına ait sağlık harcamaları ve sağlık göstergelerine göre ülkelerin çok boyutlu ölçekleme (ÇBÖ) yöntemiyle konumlarının belirlenmesi ve standardize edilmiş veriler ile edilmemiş (ham) verilerle elde edilen sonuçların karşılaştırılması amaçlanmıştır. Gereç ve Yöntemler: Dünya Sağlık Örgütü tarafından 2020 yılı için yayımlanan sağlık göstergeleri ve ulusal sağlık harcamalarına ilişkin veriler, 24 ülke için toplanmıştır. Veriler hem Z-skoru yöntemiyle standardize edilerek hem de orijinal (edilmemiş) hâliyle ÇBÖ analizine dâhil edilmiştir. İki analiz de 2 boyutlu konfigürasyonla gerçekleştirilmiş, model uyumu standartlaştırılmış artık kareler toplamı [standardized residual sum of squares (STRESS)] ve Gevşeme Durumu Anketi [Relaxation State Questionnaire (RSQ)] (R²) değerleri ile değerlendirilmiştir. Ayrıca gözlenen ve konfigürasyon uzaklıkları arasındaki ilişki Shepard diyagramı ile görselleştirilmiştir. Bulgular: Standardize edilmiş verilerle yapılan analizde, STRESS değeri 0,17639 ve RSQ değeri 0,90810 bulunmuştur; bu da modelin veriye kabul edilebilir düzeyde uyum sağladığını göstermektedir. Standardize edilmemiş verilerle yapılan analizde ise STRESS değeri 0,00047; RSQ değeri 1,0000 olarak elde edilmiştir; bu da modelin orijinal uzaklıkları neredeyse tamamen açıkladığını ve çok güçlü bir yapı sunduğunu göstermektedir. Standardize edilmiş ve edilmemiş verilerle yapılan analizlerde ülkeler benzer gruplara ayrılmış, ancak bazı ülkelerin yerlerinde değişiklikler ve uç noktalara yönelmeler görülmüştür. Sonuç: Standardize edilmemiş verilerle yapılan metrik ÇBÖ analizi ile daha iyi sonuçlar elde edilmektedir. Bu durum, simülasyon çalışmalarıyla desteklenmelidir.

Anahtar Kelimeler: Çok boyutlu ölçekleme; COVID-19; sağlık göstergeleri; standardizasyon
ABSTRACT
 Objective: This study aimed to determine the positions of countries according to their health expenditures and health indicators for 2020, when the coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic occurred, using the multidimensional scaling (MDS) method and to compare the results obtained with standardized data and unstandardized (raw) data. Material and Methods: Health indicators and national health expenditure data published by the World Health Organization for the year 2020 were collected for 24 countries. The data were included in the multidimensional scaling analysis both by standardizing with the Z-score method and in their original (unstandardized) form. Both analyses were performed with 2-dimensional configurations, and model fit was evaluated with standardized residual sum of squares (STRESS) and Relaxation State Questionnaire (RSQ) (R²) values. In addition, the relationship between observed and configuration distances was visualized with a Shepard diagram. Results: In the analysis performed with standardized data, the STRESS value was 0.17639 and the RSQ value was 0.90810, indicating that the model fit was within an acceptable range. In the analysis conducted with non-standardized data, the STRESS value was 0.00047 and the RSQ value was 1.0000, showing a nearly perfect fit with the original distances. In both analyses, countries were grouped into similar clusters; however, positional shifts and tendencies toward outliers were observed for certain countries. Conclusion: The metric MDS analysis using non-standardized data yielded better results. However, this finding should be supported by simulation studies for validation.

Keywords: Multidimensional scaling; COVID-19; health indicators; standardization
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