Identifying, documenting, and examining heterogeneity in systematic reviews of complex interventions.

This article describes approaches for planning, dealing, and analyzing heterogeneity in a systematic review of complex interventions. Approaches aim to generate a priori hypotheses of the mechanism of action of a complex intervention to identify the key variables that might contribute to variation a...

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Autori principali: Pigott, T, Shepperd, S
Natura: Journal article
Lingua:English
Pubblicazione: 2013
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author Pigott, T
Shepperd, S
author_facet Pigott, T
Shepperd, S
author_sort Pigott, T
collection OXFORD
description This article describes approaches for planning, dealing, and analyzing heterogeneity in a systematic review of complex interventions. Approaches aim to generate a priori hypotheses of the mechanism of action of a complex intervention to identify the key variables that might contribute to variation among studies and guide statistical analysis. In addition to characteristics related to the population, intervention, and outcomes, we describe study-related variables, such as the way the interventions have been implemented and the context and conduct of studies. These approaches will guide reviewers planning a meta-analysis and provide a rationale for not meta-analyzing data if there is too much variability. Potential difficulties in applying meta-analytical techniques to examine statistical association among study results and sources of potential heterogeneity are described; these include the selection of a fixed or random-effects model, the risk of multiple testing and confounding when studies include different aspects of a complex intervention or different subsamples of the intended participant pool.
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spelling oxford-uuid:79038573-ed81-433d-85d3-68e0fb892dd22022-03-26T20:34:33ZIdentifying, documenting, and examining heterogeneity in systematic reviews of complex interventions.Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:79038573-ed81-433d-85d3-68e0fb892dd2EnglishSymplectic Elements at Oxford2013Pigott, TShepperd, SThis article describes approaches for planning, dealing, and analyzing heterogeneity in a systematic review of complex interventions. Approaches aim to generate a priori hypotheses of the mechanism of action of a complex intervention to identify the key variables that might contribute to variation among studies and guide statistical analysis. In addition to characteristics related to the population, intervention, and outcomes, we describe study-related variables, such as the way the interventions have been implemented and the context and conduct of studies. These approaches will guide reviewers planning a meta-analysis and provide a rationale for not meta-analyzing data if there is too much variability. Potential difficulties in applying meta-analytical techniques to examine statistical association among study results and sources of potential heterogeneity are described; these include the selection of a fixed or random-effects model, the risk of multiple testing and confounding when studies include different aspects of a complex intervention or different subsamples of the intended participant pool.
spellingShingle Pigott, T
Shepperd, S
Identifying, documenting, and examining heterogeneity in systematic reviews of complex interventions.
title Identifying, documenting, and examining heterogeneity in systematic reviews of complex interventions.
title_full Identifying, documenting, and examining heterogeneity in systematic reviews of complex interventions.
title_fullStr Identifying, documenting, and examining heterogeneity in systematic reviews of complex interventions.
title_full_unstemmed Identifying, documenting, and examining heterogeneity in systematic reviews of complex interventions.
title_short Identifying, documenting, and examining heterogeneity in systematic reviews of complex interventions.
title_sort identifying documenting and examining heterogeneity in systematic reviews of complex interventions
work_keys_str_mv AT pigottt identifyingdocumentingandexaminingheterogeneityinsystematicreviewsofcomplexinterventions
AT shepperds identifyingdocumentingandexaminingheterogeneityinsystematicreviewsofcomplexinterventions