[R-meta] Rationale for performing a moderator test without heterogeneity
Dear all, I am performing a meta-analysis on the effects of muscle disuse on muscle loss. We choose age, duration of the intervention and initial muscle strength as a priory moderators. The meta-analysis for muscle loss is as follows: Random-Effects Model (k = 30; tau^2 estimator: DL) logLik deviance AIC BIC AICc -17.9973 27.8366 39.9946 42.7970 40.4391 tau^2 (estimated amount of total heterogeneity): 0 (SE = 0.0511) tau (square root of estimated tau^2 value): 0 I^2 (total heterogeneity / total variability): 0.00% H^2 (total variability / sampling variability): 1.00 Test for Heterogeneity: Q(df = 29) = 27.8366, p-val = 0.5267 Model Results: estimate se zval pval ci.lb ci.ub -0.3986 0.0803 -4.9619 <.0001 -0.5561 -0.2412 *** My first question is if there is any rationale to further perform the moderator test. In fact, when I perform it for initial force the test of moderators is significant. How can I interpret this? Second, I am a little bit confused on how to interpret the test for moderators when I perform it for each variable in separate and when all moderators are analysed together. For instance, when I perform the moderators test for muscle strength it is significant; however, when both duration and strength are introduced in the model while the moderator test is significant, only duration reached a significant effect. Thank you very much, Kind regards
Rafael A. Casuso PhD in Health Sciences. Postdoctoral Researcher. University of Granada. Department of Physiology. Email: racasuso at ugr.es