ArticleStatistics in medicine2013
Planning future studies based on the conditional power of a meta-analysis.
Article in Statistics in medicine, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04383925 (Randomized Trial Evaluating the Non-specific Effects of Different BCG Strains in Guinea-Bissau), which is not on this map. Cited by 29 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Randomized Trial Evaluating the Non-specific Effects of Different BCG Strains in Guinea-Bissau: Effects on Early-life Mortality and Morbidity
Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Pooled it
- An umbrella review of the evidence associating diet and cancer risk at 11 anatomical sites.Nature communications · 2021Pooled it
- Bilingualism Is Associated with a Delayed Onset of Dementia but Not with a Lower Risk of Developing it: a Systematic Review with Meta-Analyses.Neuropsychology review · 2020Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Endoscopic and Open Release Similarly Safe for the Treatment of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.PloS one · 2015Pooled it
- Determining the Conclusiveness of Systematic Review Evidence : A Scoping Review of Methodological Approaches.Annals of internal medicine · 2026Article
- Value of Information for Clinical Trial Design: The Importance of Considering All Relevant Comparators.PharmacoEconomics · 2024Article
- Connecting a disconnected trial network with a new trial: optimizing the estimation of a comparative effect in a network meta-analysis.BMC medical research methodology · 2023Article
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- When we shouldn't borrow information from an existing network of trials for planning a new trial.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2023Article
- Using information from network meta-analyses to optimize the power and sample allocation of a subsequent trial with a new treatment.BMC medical research methodology · 2022Article
- Network meta-analyses: Methodological prerequisites and clinical usefulness.World journal of methodology · 2022Review
- Estimating the sample size of sham-controlled randomized controlled trials using existing evidence.F1000Research · 2022Article
- Conditional power of antidepressant network meta-analysis.BMC psychiatry · 2021Article
- Synthesizing existing evidence to design future trials: survey of methodologists from European institutions.Trials · 2019Article
- When Is Enough, Enough? When Are More Observational Epidemiologic Studies Needed to Resolve a Research Question: Illustrations Using Biomarker-Cancer Associations.Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology · 2019Article
- Use of a random effects meta-analysis in the design and analysis of a new clinical trial.Statistics in medicine · 2018Article
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- Planning a future randomized clinical trial based on a network of relevant past trials.Trials · 2018Article
- Continuously updated network meta-analysis and statistical monitoring for timely decision-making.Statistical methods in medical research · 2018Article
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3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Systematic reviews often provide recommendations for further research. When meta-analyses are inconclusive, such recommendations typically argue for further studies to be conducted. However, the nature and amount of future research should depend on the nature and amount of the existing research. We propose a method based on conditional power to make these recommendations more specific. Assuming a random-effects meta-analysis model, we evaluate the influence of the number of additional studies, of their information sizes and of the heterogeneity anticipated among them on the ability of an updated meta-analysis to detect a prespecified effect size. The conditional powers of possible design alternatives can be summarized in a simple graph which can also be the basis for decision making. We use three examples from the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews to demonstrate our strategy. We demonstrate that if heterogeneity is anticipated, it might not be possible for a single study to reach the desirable power no matter how large it is.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.