A variance shrinkage method improves arm-based Bayesian network meta-analysis.

ABSTRACT: Network meta-analysis is a commonly used tool to combine direct and indirect evidence in systematic reviews of multiple treatments to improve estimation compared to traditional pairwise meta-analysis. Unlike the contrast-based network meta-analysis approach, which focuses on estimating relative effects such as odds ratios, the arm-based network meta-analysis approach can estimate absolute risks and other effects, which are arguably more informative in medicine and public health. However, the number of clinical studies involving each treatment is often small in a network meta-analysis, leading to unstable treatment-specific variance estimates in the arm-based network meta-analysis approach when using non- or weakly informative priors under an unequal variance assumption. Additional assumpti

SUBMITTER: Wang Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7862427 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature