Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Editorial
. 2019 Jan;104(1):F8-F12.
doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2018-315224. Epub 2018 Nov 13.

Network meta-analysis explained

Sofia Dias  1   2 , Deborah M Caldwell  2
Affiliations
Editorial

Network meta-analysis explained

Sofia Dias et al. Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed. 2019 Jan.
No abstract available

Keywords: evidence based medicine; meta-analysis; statistics.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
An example of a network of three treatments compared in two trials (solid black lines), where an indirect comparison can be made (dashed grey line). MD, mean difference.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Network plots for (A) perinatal death and (B) estimated gestational age at delivery. The size of the circles is proportional to the number of patients randomised to each intervention and width of the lines is proportional to the number of studies making each comparison. Data from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guideline.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Cooper NJ, Sutton AJ, Ades AE, et al. . Use of evidence in economic decision models: practical issues and methodological challenges. Health Econ 2007;16:1277–86. 10.1002/hec.1297 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Efthimiou O, Mavridis D, Debray TP, et al. . Combining randomized and non-randomized evidence in network meta-analysis. Stat Med 2017;36:1210–26. 10.1002/sim.7223 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Corbett MS, Rice SJ, Madurasinghe V, et al. . Acupuncture and other physical treatments for the relief of pain due to osteoarthritis of the knee: network meta-analysis. Osteoarthritis Cartilage 2013;21:1290–8. 10.1016/j.joca.2013.05.007 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Mayo-Wilson E, Dias S, Mavranezouli I, et al. . Psychological and pharmacological interventions for social anxiety disorder in adults: a systematic review and network meta-analysis. Lancet Psychiatry 2014;1:368–76. 10.1016/S2215-0366(14)70329-3 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kriston L, von Wolff A, Westphal A, et al. . Efficacy and acceptability of acute treatments for persistent depressive disorder: a network meta-analysis. Depress Anxiety 2014;31:621–30. 10.1002/da.22236 - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms