a) With respect to meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials, what is a funnel plot?
b) In the funnel plot above:
i. What do the outer dashed lines indicate?
ii. To what does the solid vertical line correspond?
c) List three factors that result in asymmetry in funnel plots.
a) A funnel plot is a scatter plot of the effect estimates from individual studies against some measure of each study’s size or precision. The standard error of the effect estimate is often chosen as the measure of study size and plotted on the vertical axis with a reversed scale that places the larger, most powerful studies towards the top. The effect estimates from smaller studies should scatter more widely at the bottom, with the spread narrowing among larger studies.
b)
Outer dashed lines-triangular region where 95% of studies are expected to lie
Solid vertical line- no intervention effect
c)
i) Heterogeneity
ii) Reporting bias
iii) Chance
It was expected that candidates regularly attending journal club would have the knowledge to answer this question but overall it was not well answered and explanation of terms was poor
The abovedepicted plot is not the gospel plot from the CICM paper, but one which I have confabulated myself. Hopefully, it bears some resemblance to the original.
a) is answered by the college in a manner which precisely reflects the wording of the Cochrane Handbook. That is indeed " a simple scatter plot of the intervention effect estimates from individual studies against some measure of each study’s size or precision ".
b)
The lines? what do they mean? Said best by the laconic college:
c)
Causes of assymmetry are well summarised by Sterne et al (2011), whose Box 1 I have shamelessly stolen:
Reporting biases
Poor methodological quality
|
True heterogeneity
Artefactual
Chance
|
DerSimonian, Rebecca, and Nan Laird. "Meta-analysis in clinical trials."Controlled clinical trials 7.3 (1986): 177-188.
Rockette, H. E., and C. K. Redmond. "Limitations and advantages of meta-analysis in clinical trials." Cancer Clinical Trials. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 1988. 99-104.
Walker, Esteban, Adrian V. Hernandez, and Michael W. Kattan. "Meta-analysis: Its strengths and limitations." Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine75.6 (2008): 431-439.
Methodological Expectations of Cochrane Intervention Reviews
Sterne, Jonathan AC, et al. "Recommendations for examining and interpreting funnel plot asymmetry in meta-analyses of randomised controlled trials." Bmj 343 (2011): d4002.