Examining publication bias—a simulation-based evaluation of statistical tests on publication bias

Schneck, Andreas

doi:10.7717/peerj.4115

Cited by 18 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 81 publications

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“…In addition, the publication bias in the meta-analysis likely led to small-study effects, where the smaller studies might have shown larger treatment effects. The Egger test is a statistical test for small-study effects that may detect increased bias with increasing numbers of trials on the basis of a linear regression model [ 24 , 25 ]. In this study, publication bias was assessed using the Egger test.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A meta-analysis of the incidence rate of postoperative acute kidney injury in patients with congenital heart disease

Li¹,

Niu²,

Huang³

et al. 2020

BMC Nephrol

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Background Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common complication of cardiac surgery. However, the incidence rate of AKI in patients with congenital heart disease (CHD) greatly varies between reports owing to the different definitions used for AKI. Therefore, this study was designed as a meta-analysis aimed at summarizing the incidence rate of AKI in patients with congenital heart disease (CHD) on the basis of different AKI criteria. Methods Studies published till April 24, 2020, on the incidence rate of AKI in patients with CHD, were retrieved from electronic databases and printed literature. To pool data from the included studies, the effect size, a combined statistics, was chosen and presented with the incidence rate and 95% confidence interval (CI). Heterogeneity was evaluated using I 2 statistics and Cochran Q test. The incidence rates obtained from the subgroup analysis according to study location, type of surgery, type of cohort, age, and AKI criteria) were also evaluated to determine the correlation of AKI with these factors. Publication bias was estimated using the Egger test. Results Thirty studies, comprising 9925 patients with AKI who had CHD, were included. Overall, the pooled incidence rate of AKI in the patients with CHD was 38.4% (95% CI, 32.0–44.7%). However, the incidence rate was not significantly affected by gender, study location, type of surgery, type of cohort, and AKI criteria. Moreover, age was significantly associated with the incidence of AKI, and the incidence rate was higher in the patients aged < 1 month than in those aged 1 month to 18 years, < 18 years, and ≥ 18 years ( P < 0.05). Conclusions In this study, the estimated incidence rate of AKI in patients with CHD was 38.4% and may be influenced by age. These findings highlight the importance of further investigation of the specific causes of and effective preventive measures for AKI.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A meta-analysis of the incidence rate of postoperative acute kidney injury in patients with congenital heart disease

Li¹,

Niu²,

Huang³

et al. 2020

BMC Nephrol

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“…The PB against non-significant studies is another threat that biases the combined estimates of the population ES. It is a real and important threat to the validity of conclusions based on meta-analyses that has been well studied and documented for decades (Mueller, 2018;Rothstein et al, 2005;Schneck, 2018;van Aert et al, 2019). Graphically, PB produces a step in the expected distribution of p-values that can be very similar to that produced by pH.…”

Section: Assessing the Prevalence Of Phmentioning

confidence: 99%

The small impact of p-hacking marginally significant results on the meta-analytic estimation of effect size

Botella¹,

Suero

Durán³

et al. 2021

An. psicol.

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La etiqueta p-hacking (pH) se refiere a un conjunto de prácticas oportunistas destinadas a hacer que sean significativos algunos valores p que deberían ser no significativos. Algunos han argumentado que debemos prevenir y luchar contra el pH por varias razones, especialmente debido a sus posibles efectos nocivos en la evaluación de los resultados de la investigación primaria y su síntesis meta-analítica. Nos focalizamos aquí en el efecto de un tipo específico de pH, centrado en estudios marginalmente significativos, en la estimación combinada del tamaño del efecto en el meta-análisis. Queremos saber cuánto deberíamos preocuparnos por su efecto de sesgo al evaluar los resultados de un meta-análisis. Hemos calculado el sesgo en una variedad de situaciones que parecen realistas en términos de prevalencia y de la definición operativa del pH. Los resultados muestran que en la mayoría de las situaciones analizadas el sesgo es inferior a una centésima (± 0.01), en términos de d o r. Para alcanzar un nivel de sesgo de cinco centésimas (± 0.05), tendría que haber una presencia masiva de este tipo de pH, lo que parece poco realista. Hay muchas buenas razones para luchar contra el pH, pero nuestra conclusión principal es que entre esas razones no se incluye que tenga un gran impacto en la estimación meta-analítica del tamaño del efecto. The label p-hacking (pH) refers to a set of opportunistic practices aimed at making statistically significant p values that should be non-significant. Some have argued that we should prevent and fight against pH for several reasons, especially because of its potential harmful effects on the assessment of both primary research results and their meta-analytical synthesis. We focus here on the effect of a specific type of pH, focused on marginally significant studies, on the combined estimation of effect size in meta-analysis. We want to know how much we should be concerned with its biasing effect when assessing the results of a meta-analysis. We have calculated the bias in a range of situations that seem realistic in terms of the prevalence and the operational definition of pH. The results show that in most of the situations analyzed the bias is less than one hundredth (± 0.01), in terms of d or r. To reach a level of bias of five-hundredths (± 0.05), there would have to be a massive presence of this type of pH, which seems rather unrealistic. There are many good reasons for fighting against pH, but our main conclusion is that among them is not that it has a big impact on the meta-analytical estimation of effect size.

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“…Publication bias was assessed subjectively by visual evaluation of funnel plots. Furthermore, Egger’s test and Begg’s test were both conducted using Stata 13.0 (Stata Corp, College Station, Texas, USA), and P value less than 0.05 indicated possibility of publication bias [9], in which case, the Duval and Tweedie’s trim and fill method with random effect would be performed to estimate the adjusted effect size [10].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Total hysterectomy versus uterine evacuation for preventing post-molar gestational trophoblastic neoplasia in patients who are at least 40 years old: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Zhao

Huang

et al. 2019

BMC Cancer

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BackgroundThe clinical value of total hysterectomy for patients with hydatidiform mole (HM) being at least 40 years old remains highly controversial. Since the practice of hysterectomy has been applied globally for decades, there is an urgent need to perform a systematic review to assess its risks and benefits.MethodsSix electronic databases, including four English databases and one Chinese database, were searched from the inception of each database till October 6th 2017. Studies were included if they: 1) were human studies, 2) explicitly indicated exposure to hysterectomy, 3) explicitly indicated control to uterine evacuation, 4) explicitly indicated the participants were older patients with HM being at least 40 years in age, 5) compared the outcome of interest as the incidence of post-molar GTN. Two authors independently conducted the literature search, study selection, data extraction. Pooled odds ratios were analyzed using Review Manager 5.3.ResultsThe overall pooled effect size of total hysterectomy had a significant advantage in preventing post-molar gestational trophoblastic neoplasia over uterine evacuation with an OR of 0.19 (95% CI, 0.08–0.48; P = 0.0004) and a low heterogeneity (I2 = 21%, P = 0.28). Subgroup analysis and sensitivity analysis also showed similar results.ConclusionsTotal hysterectomy, as compared to uterine evacuation, is a better therapeutic method for patients with HM being at least 40 years old unless fertility is still desired.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12885-018-5168-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Examining publication bias—a simulation-based evaluation of statistical tests on publication bias

Cited by 18 publications

References 81 publications

A meta-analysis of the incidence rate of postoperative acute kidney injury in patients with congenital heart disease

A meta-analysis of the incidence rate of postoperative acute kidney injury in patients with congenital heart disease

The small impact of p-hacking marginally significant results on the meta-analytic estimation of effect size

Total hysterectomy versus uterine evacuation for preventing post-molar gestational trophoblastic neoplasia in patients who are at least 40 years old: a systematic review and meta-analysis

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