Meta-analysis with sample-standardization in multi-site studies.
distributed data network
meta-analysis
multi-site study
standardization
target population
Journal
Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety
ISSN: 1099-1557
Titre abrégé: Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf
Pays: England
ID NLM: 9208369
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
01 2023
01 2023
Historique:
revised:
13
07
2022
received:
03
03
2022
accepted:
13
08
2022
pubmed:
18
8
2022
medline:
17
12
2022
entrez:
17
8
2022
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
To conceptualize a particular target population and estimand for multi-site pharmacoepidemiologic studies within data networks and to analytically examine sample-standardization as a meta-analytic method compared with inverse-variance weighted meta-analyses. The target population of interest is all and only all individuals from the data-contributing sites. Standardization, a general conditioning technique frequently employed for confounding control, was adopted to estimate the network-wide causal treatment effect. Specifically, the proposed sample-standardization yields a meta-analysis estimator, that is, a weighted summation of site-specific results, where the weight for a site is the proportion of its size in the entire network. This sample-standardization estimator was evaluated analytically in comparison to estimators from inverse-variance weighted fixed-effect and random-effects meta-analyses in terms of statistical consistency. A proof is reported to justify the consistency of the sample-standardization estimator with and without treatment effect heterogeneity by site. Both inverse-variance weighted fixed-effect and random-effects meta-analyses were found to generally result in inconsistent estimators in the presence of treatment effect heterogeneity by site for this particular target population and estimand. Sample-standardization is a valid approach to generate causal inference in multi-site studies when the target population comprises all and only all individuals within the network, even in the presence of heterogeneity of treatment effect by site. Multi-site studies should clearly specify the target population and estimand to help select the most appropriate meta-analytic methods.
Types de publication
Meta-Analysis
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
56-59Informations de copyright
© 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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