Related papers: Simulation study of estimating between-study varia…
Methods for random-effects meta-analysis require an estimate of the between-study variance, $\tau^2$. The performance of estimators of $\tau^2$ (measured by bias and coverage) affects their usefulness in assessing heterogeneity of…
Random-effects meta-analysis requires an estimate of the between-study variance, $\tau^2$. We study methods of estimation of $\tau^2$ and its confidence interval in meta-analysis of odds ratio, and also the performance of related estimators…
Methods for random-effects meta-analysis require an estimate of the between-study variance, $\tau^2$. The performance of estimators of $\tau^2$ (measured by bias and coverage) affects their usefulness in assessing heterogeneity of…
When the individual studies assembled for a meta-analysis report means ($\mu_C$, $\mu_T$) for their treatment (T) and control (C) arms, but those data are on different scales or come from different instruments, the customary measure of…
We consider a three-level meta-analysis of standardized mean differences. The standard method of estimation uses inverse-variance weights and REML/PL estimation of variance components for the random effects. We introduce new moment-based…
Meta-analysis aims to combine effect measures from several studies. For continuous outcomes, the most popular effect measures use simple or standardized differences in sample means. However, a number of applications focus on the absolute…
The standardized mean difference (SMD) is a widely used measure of effect size, particularly common in psychology, clinical trials, and meta-analysis involving continuous outcomes. Traditionally, under the equal variance assumption, the SMD…
A variety of problems in random-effects meta-analysis arise from the conventional $Q$ statistic, which uses estimated inverse-variance (IV) weights. In previous work on standardized mean difference and log-odds-ratio, we found superior…
For differences between means of continuous data from independent groups, the customary scale-free measure of effect is the standardized mean difference (SMD). To justify use of SMD, one should be reasonably confident that the group-level…
A number of popular estimators of the between-study variance, $\tau^2$, are based on the Cochran's $Q$ statistic for testing heterogeneity in meta analysis. We introduce new point and interval estimators of $\tau^2$ for log-odds-ratio.…
Cochran's $Q$ statistic is routinely used for testing heterogeneity in meta-analysis. Its expected value is also used for estimation of between-study variance $\tau^2$. Cochran's $Q$, or $Q_{IV}$, uses estimated inverse-variance weights…
Researchers increasingly use meta-analysis to synthesize the results of several studies in order to estimate a common effect. When the outcome variable is continuous, standard meta-analytic approaches assume that the primary studies report…
Meta-analyses are commonly used to provide solid evidence across numerous studies. Traditional moment methods, such as the DerSimonian-Laird method, remain popular in spite of the availability of more accurate alternatives. While moment…
BACKGROUND: Random-effects meta-analysis is commonly performed by first deriving an estimate of the between-study variation, the heterogeneity, and subsequently using this as the basis for combining results, i.e., for estimating the effect,…
Random-effects meta-analyses are used to combine evidence of treatment effects from multiple studies. Since treatment effects may vary across trials due to differences in study characteristics, heterogeneity in treatment effects between…
Traditional meta-analysis assumes that the effect sizes estimated in individual studies follow a Gaussian distribution. However, this distributional assumption is not always satisfied in practice, leading to potentially biased results. In…
We consider the setting of an aggregate data meta-analysis of a continuous outcome of interest. When the distribution of the outcome is skewed, it is often the case that some primary studies report the sample mean and standard deviation of…
In systematic reviews and meta-analysis, researchers often pool the results of the sample mean and standard deviation from a set of similar clinical trials. A number of the trials, however, reported the study using the median, the minimum…
As the most important tool to provide high-level evidence-based medicine, researchers can statistically summarize and combine data from multiple studies by conducting meta-analysis. In meta-analysis, mean differences are frequently used…
Random-effects models are frequently used to synthesise information from different studies in meta-analysis. While likelihood-based inference is attractive both in terms of limiting properties and of implementation, its application in…