Between-trial heterogeneity in meta-analyses may be partially explained by reported design characteristics.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

We investigated the associations between risk of bias judgments from Cochrane reviews for sequence generation, allocation concealment and blinding, and between-trial heterogeneity.

Study design and setting

Bayesian hierarchical models were fitted to binary data from 117 meta-analyses, to estimate the ratio λ by which heterogeneity changes for trials at high/unclear risk of bias compared with trials at low risk of bias. We estimated the proportion of between-trial heterogeneity in each meta-analysis that could be explained by the bias associated with specific design characteristics.

Results

Univariable analyses showed that heterogeneity variances were, on average, increased among trials at high/unclear risk of bias for sequence generation (λˆ 1.14, 95% interv

SUBMITTER: Rhodes KM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5828111 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature