[R] metafor - Meta-Analysis of rare events / beta-binomial regression

[Michael Dewey]

Dear Markus

This is not a direct answer to your question, I will leave that to 
Wolfgang but two thoughts:

1 - if all the studies have very sparse data
@article{bradburn07,
    author = {Bradburn, M J and Deeks, J J and Berlin, J A and Localio, 
A R},
    title = {Much ado about nothing: a comparison of the performance of
       meta--analytical methods with rare events},
    journal = {Statistics in Medicine},
    year = {2007},
    volume = {26},
    pages = {53--77},
    keywords = {meta-analysis, fixed effects, random effects}
}
suggests, surprisingly, that just collapsing the tables may be adequate

2 - there is a CRAN package mmeta which uses beta-binomial in a Bayesian 
perspective. I did not find the documentation very explicit but there is 
a paper in JSS.

On 26/11/2015 13:39, Markus Kösters wrote:
> Dear all,
>
>
>
> I am currently writing a protocol for a meta-analysis which will analyze
> suicidal events. Recently, O. Kuss has (DOI 10.1002/sim.6383) published a
> paper that suggest using beta-binomial regression methods to incorporate
> double-zero studies. He states that �Methods that ignore information from
> double-zero studies or use continuity corrections should no longer be used.�
> It seems obvious to me that excluding studies with zero events will bias the
> results and I am willing to follow his advice. However, I am not a a
> biometrician, I have to admit that I am at a loss if and how it is possible
> to fit such model within the metafor package. Can someone help me or should
> I use the Yusuf�Peto odds ratio method as suggested in the Cochrane
> handbook?
>
> Many thanks in advance,
>
>
>
> Markus
>
>
>
>
>
>
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
>
>
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-- 
Michael
http://www.dewey.myzen.co.uk/home.html