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Network meta-analyses: Methodological prerequisites and clinical usefulness
It is an undeniable fact that systematic reviews play a crucial role in informing clinical practice; however, conventional head-to-head meta-analyses do have limitations. In particular, studies can only be compared in a pair-wise fashion, and conclusions can only be drawn in the light of direct evid...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Baishideng Publishing Group Inc
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9157634/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35721244 http://dx.doi.org/10.5662/wjm.v12.i3.92 |
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author | Christofilos, Savvas Ilias Tsikopoulos, Konstantinos Tsikopoulos, Alexios Kitridis, Dimitrios Sidiropoulos, Konstantinos Stoikos, Panagiotis Nikolaos Kavarthapu, Venu |
author_facet | Christofilos, Savvas Ilias Tsikopoulos, Konstantinos Tsikopoulos, Alexios Kitridis, Dimitrios Sidiropoulos, Konstantinos Stoikos, Panagiotis Nikolaos Kavarthapu, Venu |
author_sort | Christofilos, Savvas Ilias |
collection | PubMed |
description | It is an undeniable fact that systematic reviews play a crucial role in informing clinical practice; however, conventional head-to-head meta-analyses do have limitations. In particular, studies can only be compared in a pair-wise fashion, and conclusions can only be drawn in the light of direct evidence. In contrast, network meta-analyses can not only compare multiple interventions but also utilize indirect evidence which increases their precision. On top of that, they can also rank competing interventions. In this mini-review, we have aimed to elaborate on the principles and techniques governing network meta-analyses to achieve a methodologically sound synthesis, thus enabling safe conclusions to be drawn in clinical practice. We have emphasized the prerequisites of a well-conducted Network Meta-Analysis (NMA), the value of selecting appropriate outcomes according to guidelines for transparent reporting, and the clarity achieved via sophisticated graphical tools. What is more, we have addressed the importance of incorporating the level of evidence into the results and interpreting the findings according to validated appraisal systems (i.e., the Grade of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation system - GRADE). Lastly, we have addressed the possibility of planning future research via NMAs. Thus, we can conclude that NMAs could be of great value to clinical practice. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9157634 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Baishideng Publishing Group Inc |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-91576342022-06-17 Network meta-analyses: Methodological prerequisites and clinical usefulness Christofilos, Savvas Ilias Tsikopoulos, Konstantinos Tsikopoulos, Alexios Kitridis, Dimitrios Sidiropoulos, Konstantinos Stoikos, Panagiotis Nikolaos Kavarthapu, Venu World J Methodol Minireviews It is an undeniable fact that systematic reviews play a crucial role in informing clinical practice; however, conventional head-to-head meta-analyses do have limitations. In particular, studies can only be compared in a pair-wise fashion, and conclusions can only be drawn in the light of direct evidence. In contrast, network meta-analyses can not only compare multiple interventions but also utilize indirect evidence which increases their precision. On top of that, they can also rank competing interventions. In this mini-review, we have aimed to elaborate on the principles and techniques governing network meta-analyses to achieve a methodologically sound synthesis, thus enabling safe conclusions to be drawn in clinical practice. We have emphasized the prerequisites of a well-conducted Network Meta-Analysis (NMA), the value of selecting appropriate outcomes according to guidelines for transparent reporting, and the clarity achieved via sophisticated graphical tools. What is more, we have addressed the importance of incorporating the level of evidence into the results and interpreting the findings according to validated appraisal systems (i.e., the Grade of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation system - GRADE). Lastly, we have addressed the possibility of planning future research via NMAs. Thus, we can conclude that NMAs could be of great value to clinical practice. Baishideng Publishing Group Inc 2022-05-20 /pmc/articles/PMC9157634/ /pubmed/35721244 http://dx.doi.org/10.5662/wjm.v12.i3.92 Text en ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. |
spellingShingle | Minireviews Christofilos, Savvas Ilias Tsikopoulos, Konstantinos Tsikopoulos, Alexios Kitridis, Dimitrios Sidiropoulos, Konstantinos Stoikos, Panagiotis Nikolaos Kavarthapu, Venu Network meta-analyses: Methodological prerequisites and clinical usefulness |
title | Network meta-analyses: Methodological prerequisites and clinical usefulness |
title_full | Network meta-analyses: Methodological prerequisites and clinical usefulness |
title_fullStr | Network meta-analyses: Methodological prerequisites and clinical usefulness |
title_full_unstemmed | Network meta-analyses: Methodological prerequisites and clinical usefulness |
title_short | Network meta-analyses: Methodological prerequisites and clinical usefulness |
title_sort | network meta-analyses: methodological prerequisites and clinical usefulness |
topic | Minireviews |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9157634/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35721244 http://dx.doi.org/10.5662/wjm.v12.i3.92 |
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