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[R-meta] Bivariate generalized linear mixed model with {metafor}

Hi Wolfgang,

It?s me again about this bivariate model. I am having a hard time trying to figure out if I understood it correctly.

To recap, I wanted to fit a bivariate meta-analysis model (hereafter, mod1) described in Reference [1] below. You replied suggesting it was the "Model 6: the Van Houwelingen bivariate? (mod2) in your article with Jackson et al (Reference [2]).

However, I am now re-reading all these articles and I believe mod1 and mod2 are different. Reference [1] cites Thompson et al. (Reference [3]), and does not cite van Houwelingen. You cited Van Houwelingen et al (Reference [4]). To my knowledge, they seem different models indeed.

In fact, Van Houwelingen in Reference [5] directly cites Thompson suggesting these models are distinct:

"The mix of many ?fixed and a few random e?ffects as proposed by Thompson et al. ? are more in the spirit of the functional approach. These methods are meant to impose no conditions on the distribution of the true baseline risks? In a letter to the editor by Van Houwelingen and Senn following the article of Thompson et al. , Van Houwelingen and Senn argue that putting Bayesian priors on all nuisance parameters, as done by Thompson et al., does not help solving the inconsistency problem."

Are they indeed different model?

Please ignore this email if this question is out of the scope of your mailing list. Sorry in advance.

Kind regards,

Arthur M. Albuquerque

Medical student
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

References:

[1] Xiao, Mengli, Yong Chen, Stephen R Cole, Richard F MacLehose, David B Richardson, and Haitao Chu. ?Controversy and Debate: Questionable Utility of the Relative Risk in Clinical Research: Paper 2: Is the Odds Ratio ?Portable? in Meta-Analysis? Time to Consider Bivariate Generalized Linear Mixed Model?. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology 142 (February 2022): 280?87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2021.08.004

[2] Jackson, Dan, Martin Law, Theo Stijnen, Wolfgang Viechtbauer, and Ian R. White. ?A Comparison of Seven Random-Effects Models for Meta-Analyses That Estimate the Summary Odds Ratio?. Statistics in Medicine 37, no. 7 (30 March 2018): 1059?85. https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.7588

[3] Thompson, Simon G., Teresa C. Smith, and Stephen J. Sharp. ?Investigating Underlying Risk as a Source of Heterogeneity in Meta-Analysis?. Statistics in Medicine 16, no. 23 (15 December 1997): 2741?58. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1097-0258(19971215)16:23<2741::AID-SIM703>3.0.CO;2-0

[4] Van Houwelingen, Hans C., Koos H. Zwinderman, and Theo Stijnen. ?A Bivariate Approach to Meta-Analysis?. Statistics in Medicine 12, no. 24 (30 December 1993): 2273?84. https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.4780122405

[5] Houwelingen, Hans C. van, Lidia R. Arends, and Theo Stijnen. ?Advanced Methods in Meta-Analysis: Multivariate Approach and Meta-Regression?. Statistics in Medicine 21, no. 4 (28 February 2002): 589?624. https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.1040
On Jan 27, 2022, 4:04 PM -0300, Viechtbauer, Wolfgang (SP) <wolfgang.viechtbauer at maastrichtuniversity.nl>, wrote: