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Meta-analysis

Meta-analysis. Definition. “Meta-analysis refers to the analysis of analyses... the statistical analysis of a large collection of analysis results from individual studies for the purpose of integrating the findings” (Glass 1976). When is meta-analysis useful?. Recurrent issues:

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Meta-analysis

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  1. Meta-analysis

  2. Definition “Meta-analysis refers to the analysis of analyses... the statistical analysis of a large collection of analysis results from individual studies for the purpose of integrating the findings” (Glass 1976)

  3. When is meta-analysis useful? Recurrent issues: Small effect sizes: e.g. average r in ecology and evolution is often lower than 0.20 (Møller & Jennions 2002) Studies on small and/or highly variable sample size Debated theories Møller AP, Jennions MD. 2002. How much variation can be explained by ecologists and evolutionary biologists? Oecologia 132: 492-500

  4. Benefits of Meta-Analysis – An Example using a funnel plot

  5. Benefits of meta-analysis • Gives the general effect of a given phenomenon (e.g. the effect of group size on fitness in primates; Majolo et al 2008) • It controls for variance in the data by using effect size • Effect size: a statistical measure portraying the degree to which a given event is present in a sample (Cohen, 1969). The type of measure is called the effect, and its magnitude is considered an effect size • The effect size of a meta-analysis is greater than the effect sizes of the single studies on which it’s based Majolo B, de BortoliVizioli a, Schino G (2008) Costs and benefits of group living in primates: group size effects on behaviour and demography. AnimBehav 76:1235-1247

  6. Steps to run a meta-analysis Select research question: highly studied but debated topic? Select criteria for data to be included in your dataset (very important to avoid biases!) Collect data from previous studies (published or not) Calculate effect size (chosen based on type of data available, e.g. means, standard deviations, correlation coefficients, and so on) Statistics necessary for chosen effect size can be obtained from various sources, e.g. p value, F, t, chi-square… Calculate variance of your dataset Run analysis with dedicated software (e.g. STATA)

  7. Problems of meta-analysis Meta-analysis is usually run on published studies and thus the researcher has limited power on data availability or experimental design Usually required a minimum of 25 studies (sample points) but often meta-analyses have been published with smaller sample sizes Meta-analysis is run at the within-study level: effect size is calculated for each study (so each study has to have, e.g., data on a control and an experimental group) Publication bias: the tendency to publish studies only with significant results may bias data used in a meta-analysis Test for publication bias need to be performed to make sure this factor does not affect results (e.g. Begg’s or Egger’s test)

  8. Reading material (available in the library) Hedges L.V. & Olkin I. (1985). Statistical methods for meta-analysis. Academic Press Stangl D.K. & Berry D.A. (2000). Meta-analysis in medicine and health policy. E-Book

  9. Generalised Linear Mixed Models (GLMMs)

  10. Some recurrent problems Data are often clustered or hierarchically structured, e.g.: • Children are nested within schools • Subjects come from different populations / study sites / cultures • Several (repeated) observations are collected on the same individual We need to take these clusters into account…

  11. An example of the relationship between exercise and blood pressure – Missing important information?

  12. Same example as previous slide (relationship between exercise and blood pressure) but this time we look at individual scores

  13. Some problems with (RM) ANOVAs - 1 • Missing values: a subject is excluded from the analysis if one datum is missing • Not possible to include covariates on each time/condition measurement: this is a problem as often various factors change across conditions (e.g. age) • Needs equal spacing among conditions (e.g.: time 1, time 2, time 3) • Developmental trajectories difficult to model (e.g. growth curves)

  14. Some problems with (RM) ANOVAs - 2 • Differences in individual behaviour not detectable, so we may miss important information • Not easy to analyse more complex designs: • individuals nested within families or groups • students nested in class, classes nested in schools, schools nested in countries... • Only available for continuous and normal distributed data

  15. For example: Factors affecting reconciliation in macaques (Majolo et al 2009) Majolo B., Ventura R. & Koyama N.F. (2009a). A statistical modelling approach to the occurrence and timing of reconciliation in wild Japanese macaques. Ethology, 115: 152-166.

  16. GLMMs - 1 Solve most (all) of the problems encountered with ANOVAs: • DV can be continuous or dichotomous • Individual ID can be incorporated (as a random factor) and controlled for (thus we can have multiple observations on the same subject without the risk of sample inflation) • Different fixed factors and covariates can be added for each condition or observation time • Missing data do not result in sample reduction

  17. GLMMs - 2 • Random factors: variables from which you want to obtain a more general result from your dataset • E.g. You have to control for your subject IDs but you want to generalise your finding to the whole study population • Fixed factors: variables for which you are interested in their specific effect on the DV • E.g. Gender (male vs female) or treatment conditions are fixed factors (you cannot generalise their effects on the DV to more treatments or sex)

  18. GLMMs - 3 • Model selection may be used to choose the model with the best fit • One measure frequently used is the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) • A lower AIC corresponds to a better fit of the model

  19. Same example as before: Factors affecting reconciliation in macaques (Majolo et al 2009) Majolo B., Ventura R. & Koyama N.F. (2009a). A statistical modelling approach to the occurrence and timing of reconciliation in wild Japanese macaques. Ethology, 115: 152-166.

  20. Reading material (available in the library) • Ho R. (2006). Handbook of Univariate and Multivariate Data Analysis and Interpretation with SPSS. Chapman & Hall. • Tabachnick B.G. & Fidell L.S. (2001). Using multivariate statistics. Allyn & Bacon. • West B., Welch K.B. & Galecki A.T. (2006). Linear Mixed Models: A Practical Guide Using Statistical Software. Chapman & Hall.

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