Add labels to group similar variables in a gtsummary generated table

How do you add labels to group similar variables in a gtsummary generated table? For example, if survey respondents are able to select multiple races (captured in separate variables), I would like a heading for the race variables:

Here is the tbl_summary output:

library(tidyverse)
library(gtsummary)
library(knitr)
tibble::tribble(
  ~race___1, ~race___2, ~race___3, ~race___4, ~race___5,
       "No",      "No",      "No",      "No",     "Yes",
       "No",      "No",     "Yes",      "No",      "No",
       "No",      "No",      "No",      "No",     "Yes",
       "No",      "No",      "No",      "No",     "Yes",
       "No",      "No",      "No",      "No",     "Yes",
       "No",      "No",      "No",      "No",     "Yes",
       "No",      "No",      "No",      "No",     "Yes",
       "No",      "No",      "No",      "No",     "Yes",
       "No",      "No",      "No",      "No",     "Yes",
       "No",      "No",      "No",      "No",     "Yes"
  ) %>% tbl_summary() %>% as_kable()

Characteristic	N = 10
race___1
No	10 (100%)
race___2
No	10 (100%)
race___3	1 (10%)
race___4
No	10 (100%)
race___5	9 (90%)

^{Created on 2022-03-11 by the reprex package (v2.0.1)}

Solution

You'll want to use the bstfun::add_variable_grouping() function (https://www.danieldsjoberg.com/bstfun/reference/add_variable_grouping.html).

Example below!

library(gtsummary)
packageVersion("gtsummary")
#> [1] '1.5.2'

tbl <-
  tibble::tribble(
    ~race___1, ~race___2, ~race___3, ~race___4, ~race___5,
    "No",      "No",      "No",      "No",     "Yes",
    "No",      "No",     "Yes",      "No",      "No",
    "No",      "No",      "No",      "No",     "Yes",
    "No",      "No",      "No",      "No",     "Yes",
    "No",      "No",      "No",      "No",     "Yes",
    "No",      "No",      "No",      "No",     "Yes",
    "No",      "No",      "No",      "No",     "Yes",
    "No",      "No",      "No",      "No",     "Yes",
    "No",      "No",      "No",      "No",     "Yes",
    "No",      "No",      "No",      "No",     "Yes"
  ) %>% 
  tbl_summary(value = everything() ~ "Yes") %>%
  bstfun::add_variable_grouping(
    "Race" = c("race___1", "race___2", "race___3", "race___4", "race___5")
  )

^{Created on 2022-03-11 by the reprex package (v2.0.1)}