ArticleBMC medical research methodology2014
Network meta-analysis of multiple outcome measures accounting for borrowing of information across outcomes.
Article in BMC medical research methodology, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 71 citations in OpenAlex.
- Systematic review and network meta-analysis comparing Chinese herbal injections with chemotherapy for treating patients with esophageal cancer.The Journal of international medical research · 2020Pooled it
- A Bayesian Network Meta-Analysis for Identifying the Optimal Taxane-Based Chemotherapy Regimens for Treating Gastric Cancer.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2019Pooled it
- Bayesian bivariate meta-analysis of correlated effects: Impact of the prior distributions on the between-study correlation, borrowing of strength, and joint inferences.Statistical methods in medical research · 2018Pooled it
- Bayesian Network Meta-Analysis With One or Two Continuous Outcomes Measured at Multiple Time Points Using Gaussian Random Walks With Drift.Statistics in medicine · 2026Article
- Incorporating the possibility of cure into network meta-analyses: A case study from resected Stage III/IV melanoma.Research synthesis methods · 2026Article
- Article
- One-step parametric network meta-analysis models using the exact likelihood that allow for time-varying treatment effects.Research synthesis methods · 2025Article
- A New Frequentist Implementation of the Daniels and Hughes Bivariate Meta-Analysis Model for Surrogate Endpoint Evaluation.Biometrical journal. Biometrische Zeitschrift · 2025Article
- Multi-state network meta-analysis of progression and survival data.Statistics in medicine · 2023Article
- Comparison of efficacy and tolerability of adjuvant therapy for resected high-risk stage III-IV cutaneous melanoma: a systemic review and Bayesian network meta-analysis.Therapeutic advances in medical oncology · 2023Article
- Multivariate Bayesian Arm-Based Network Meta-Analysis of Pharmacological Interventions for the Treatment of Acute Bipolar Mania in Adults.Indian journal of psychological medicine · 2023Article
- Network Meta-analysis on Disconnected Evidence Networks When Only Aggregate Data Are Available: Modified Methods to Include Disconnected Trials and Single-Arm Studies while Minimizing Bias.Medical decision making : an international journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making · 2022Article
- The development of network meta-analysis.Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine · 2022Article
- Challenges of modelling approaches for network meta-analysis of time-to-event outcomes in the presence of non-proportional hazards to aid decision making: Application to a melanoma network.Statistical methods in medical research · 2022Article
- Concepts and emerging issues of network meta-analysis.Korean journal of anesthesiology · 2021Review
- Classifying information-sharing methods.BMC medical research methodology · 2021Article
- A review of the quantitative effectiveness evidence synthesis methods used in public health intervention guidelines.BMC public health · 2021Review
- Joining the Dots: Linking Disconnected Networks of Evidence Using Dose-Response Model-Based Network Meta-Analysis.Medical decision making : an international journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making · 2021Article
- Multivariate network meta-analysis incorporating class effects.BMC medical research methodology · 2020Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundNetwork meta-analysis (NMA) enables simultaneous comparison of multiple treatments while preserving randomisation. When summarising evidence to inform an economic evaluation, it is important that the analysis accurately reflects the dependency structure within the data, as correlations between outcomes may have implication for estimating the net benefit associated with treatment. A multivariate NMA offers a framework for evaluating multiple treatments across multiple outcome measures while accounting for the correlation structure between outcomes.
methodsThe standard NMA model is extended to multiple outcome settings in two stages. In the first stage, information is borrowed across outcomes as well across studies through modelling the within-study and between-study correlation structure. In the second stage, we make use of the additional assumption that intervention effects are exchangeable between outcomes to predict effect estimates for all outcomes, including effect estimates on outcomes where evidence is either sparse or the treatment had not been considered by any one of the studies included in the analysis. We apply the methods to binary outcome data from a systematic review evaluating the effectiveness of nine home safety interventions on uptake of three poisoning prevention practices (safe storage of medicines, safe storage of other household products, and possession of poison centre control telephone number) in households with children. Analyses are conducted in WinBUGS using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulations.
resultsUnivariate and the first stage multivariate models produced broadly similar point estimates of intervention effects but the uncertainty around the multivariate estimates varied depending on the prior distribution specified for the between-study covariance structure. The second stage multivariate analyses produced more precise effect estimates while enabling intervention effects to be predicted for all outcomes, including intervention effects on outcomes not directly considered by the studies included in the analysis.
conclusionsAccounting for the dependency between outcomes in a multivariate meta-analysis may or may not improve the precision of effect estimates from a network meta-analysis compared to analysing each outcome separately.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.