Empirical evidence about inconsistency among studies in a pair-wise meta-analysis.

ABSTRACT: This paper investigates how inconsistency (as measured by the I² statistic) among studies in a meta-analysis may differ, according to the type of outcome data and effect measure. We used hierarchical models to analyse data from 3873 binary, 5132 continuous and 880 mixed outcome meta-analyses within the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Predictive distributions for inconsistency expected in future meta-analyses were obtained, which can inform priors for between-study variance. Inconsistency estimates were highest on average for binary outcome meta-analyses of risk differences and continuous outcome meta-analyses. For a planned binary outcome meta-analysis in a general research setting, the predictive distribution for inconsistency among log odds ratios had median 22% and 9

SUBMITTER: Rhodes KM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5217093 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature