IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0128804.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exploring Treatment by Covariate Interactions Using Subgroup Analysis and Meta-Regression in Cochrane Reviews: A Review of Recent Practice

Author

Listed:
  • Sarah Donegan
  • Lisa Williams
  • Sofia Dias
  • Catrin Tudur-Smith
  • Nicky Welton

Abstract

Background: Treatment by covariate interactions can be explored in reviews using interaction analyses (e.g., subgroup analysis). Such analyses can provide information on how the covariate modifies the treatment effect and is an important methodological approach for personalising medicine. Guidance exists regarding how to apply such analyses but little is known about whether authors follow the guidance. Methods: Using published recommendations, we developed criteria to assess how well interaction analyses were designed, applied, interpreted, and reported. The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews was searched (8th August 2013). We applied the criteria to the most recently published review, with an accessible protocol, for each Cochrane Review Group. We excluded review updates, diagnostic test accuracy reviews, withdrawn reviews, and overviews of reviews. Data were summarised regarding reviews, covariates, and analyses. Results: Each of the 52 included reviews planned or did interaction analyses; 51 reviews (98%) planned analyses and 33 reviews (63%) applied analyses. The type of analysis planned and the type subsequently applied (e.g., sensitivity or subgroup analysis) was discrepant in 24 reviews (46%). No review reported how or why each covariate had been chosen; 22 reviews (42%) did state each covariate a priori in the protocol but no review identified each post-hoc covariate as such. Eleven reviews (21%) mentioned five covariates or less. One review reported planning to use a method to detect interactions (i.e., interaction test) for each covariate; another review reported applying the method for each covariate. Regarding interpretation, only one review reported whether an interaction was detected for each covariate and no review discussed the importance, or plausibility, of the results, or the possibility of confounding for each covariate. Conclusions: Interaction analyses in Cochrane Reviews can be substantially improved. The proposed criteria can be used to help guide the reporting and conduct of analyses.

Suggested Citation

  • Sarah Donegan & Lisa Williams & Sofia Dias & Catrin Tudur-Smith & Nicky Welton, 2015. "Exploring Treatment by Covariate Interactions Using Subgroup Analysis and Meta-Regression in Cochrane Reviews: A Review of Recent Practice," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(6), pages 1-17, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0128804
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0128804
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0128804
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0128804&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0128804?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sofia Dias & Alex J. Sutton & Nicky J. Welton & A. E. Ades, 2013. "Evidence Synthesis for Decision Making 3," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 33(5), pages 618-640, July.
    2. Sofia Dias & Nicky J. Welton & Alex J. Sutton & A. E. Ades, 2013. "Evidence Synthesis for Decision Making 5," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 33(5), pages 657-670, July.
    3. Sofia Dias & Alex J. Sutton & Nicky J. Welton & A. E. Ades, 2013. "Evidence Synthesis for Decision Making 6," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 33(5), pages 671-678, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Joshua B. Gilbert & Zachary Himmelsbach & James Soland & Mridul Joshi & Benjamin W. Domingue, 2024. "Estimating Heterogeneous Treatment Effects with Item-Level Outcome Data: Insights from Item Response Theory," Papers 2405.00161, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2024.
    2. Valentina Lagasio & Nicola Cucari, 2019. "Corporate governance and environmental social governance disclosure: A meta‐analytical review," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(4), pages 701-711, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mohamed A. Hassan & Wenxi Liu & Daniel J. McDonough & Xiwen Su & Zan Gao, 2022. "Comparative Effectiveness of Physical Activity Intervention Programs on Motor Skills in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-12, September.
    2. Konstantinos Katsanos & Panagiotis Kitrou & Stavros Spiliopoulos & Ioannis Maroulis & Theodore Petsas & Dimitris Karnabatidis, 2017. "Comparative effectiveness of different transarterial embolization therapies alone or in combination with local ablative or adjuvant systemic treatments for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma: A net," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(9), pages 1-31, September.
    3. Laura M Sawyer & Kinga Malottki & Celia Sabry-Grant & Najeeda Yasmeen & Emily Wright & Anne Sohrt & Emma Borg & Richard B Warren, 2019. "Assessing the relative efficacy of interleukin-17 and interleukin-23 targeted treatments for moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis: A systematic review and network meta-analysis of PASI response," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(8), pages 1-31, August.
    4. Konstantinos Katsanos & Stavros Spiliopoulos & Prakash Saha & Athanasios Diamantopoulos & Narayan Karunanithy & Miltiadis Krokidis & Bijan Modarai & Dimitris Karnabatidis, 2015. "Comparative Efficacy and Safety of Different Antiplatelet Agents for Prevention of Major Cardiovascular Events and Leg Amputations in Patients with Peripheral Arterial Disease: A Systematic Review and," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(8), pages 1-19, August.
    5. Beth Woods & Andrea Manca & Helen Weatherly & Pedro Saramago & Eleftherios Sideris & Christina Giannopoulou & Stephen Rice & Mark Corbett & Andrew Vickers & Matthew Bowes & Hugh MacPherson & Mark Scul, 2017. "Cost-effectiveness of adjunct non-pharmacological interventions for osteoarthritis of the knee," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(3), pages 1-18, March.
    6. Wei Ding & Yulin Tan & Yan Qian & Wenbo Xue & Yibo Wang & Peng Jiang & Xuezhong Xu, 2020. "First-line targ veted therapies of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma: A Bayesian network analysis of randomized controlled trials," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(3), pages 1-19, March.
    7. Philip Greengard & Andrew Gelman & Aki Vehtari, 2022. "A fast regression via SVD and marginalization," Computational Statistics, Springer, vol. 37(2), pages 701-720, April.
    8. Stefanie Reken & Sibylle Sturtz & Corinna Kiefer & Yvonne-Beatrice Böhler & Beate Wieseler, 2016. "Assumptions of Mixed Treatment Comparisons in Health Technology Assessments - Challenges and Possible Steps for Practical Application," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(8), pages 1-16, August.
    9. David M. Phillippo & Sofia Dias & A. E. Ades & Mark Belger & Alan Brnabic & Alexander Schacht & Daniel Saure & Zbigniew Kadziola & Nicky J. Welton, 2020. "Multilevel network meta‐regression for population‐adjusted treatment comparisons," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 183(3), pages 1189-1210, June.
    10. Pepijn Vemer & Maiwenn J Al & Mark Oppe & Maureen P M H Rutten-van Mölken, 2017. "Mix and match. A simulation study on the impact of mixed-treatment comparison methods on health-economic outcomes," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(2), pages 1-20, February.
    11. Ferrán Catalá-López & Brian Hutton & Amparo Núñez-Beltrán & Matthew J Page & Manuel Ridao & Diego Macías Saint-Gerons & Miguel A Catalá & Rafael Tabarés-Seisdedos & David Moher, 2017. "The pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children and adolescents: A systematic review with network meta-analyses of randomised trials," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(7), pages 1-31, July.
    12. Theodoros Papakonstantinou & Adriani Nikolakopoulou & Julian P. T. Higgins & Matthias Egger & Georgia Salanti, 2020. "CINeMA: Software for semiautomated assessment of the confidence in the results of network meta‐analysis," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(1), March.
    13. Binod Neupane & Danielle Richer & Ashley Joel Bonner & Taddele Kibret & Joseph Beyene, 2014. "Network Meta-Analysis Using R: A Review of Currently Available Automated Packages," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(12), pages 1-17, December.
    14. Panagiotis Petrou, 2019. "Seeking to introduce a pharmacoeconomics framework in Cyprus," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 64(3), pages 309-310, April.
    15. Fei Wen & Hongheng Du & Liangliang Ding & Jinxi Hu & Zifeng Huang & Hua Huang & Kaikai Li & Yuxia Mo & Anyin Kuang, 2020. "Clinical efficacy and safety of drug interventions for primary and secondary prevention of osteoporotic fractures in postmenopausal women: Network meta-analysis followed by factor and cluster analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(6), pages 1-22, June.
    16. Vignan Yogendrakumar & Ronda Lun & Faizan Khan & Kristin Salottolo & Karine Lacut & Catriona Graham & Martin Dennis & Brian Hutton & Philip S Wells & Dean Fergusson & Dar Dowlatshahi, 2020. "Venous thromboembolism prevention in intracerebral hemorrhage: A systematic review and network meta-analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(6), pages 1-14, June.
    17. Jonathan Mosseri & Ludovic Trinquart & Rémy Nizard & Philippe Ravaud, 2016. "Meta-Analysis of a Complex Network of Non-Pharmacological Interventions: The Example of Femoral Neck Fracture," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(1), pages 1-16, January.
    18. Jesse Elliott & Amy Johnston & Don Husereau & Shannon E Kelly & Caroline Eagles & Alice Charach & Shu-Ching Hsieh & Zemin Bai & Alomgir Hossain & Becky Skidmore & Eva Tsakonas & Dagmara Chojecki & Muh, 2020. "Pharmacologic treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in adults: A systematic review and network meta-analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(10), pages 1-35, October.
    19. Fernanda S Tonin & Helena H Borba & Antonio M Mendes & Astrid Wiens & Fernando Fernandez-Llimos & Roberto Pontarolo, 2019. "Description of network meta-analysis geometry: A metrics design study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(2), pages 1-14, February.
    20. Dipen A Patel & Sonya J Snedecor & Wing Yu Tang & Lavanya Sudharshan & Jessica W Lim & Robert Cuffe & Sonia Pulgar & Kim A Gilchrist & Rodrigo Refoios Camejo & Jennifer Stephens & Garrett Nichols, 2014. "48-Week Efficacy and Safety of Dolutegravir Relative to Commonly Used Third Agents in Treatment-Naive HIV-1–Infected Patients: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(9), pages 1-10, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0128804. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.