Software for meta-analysis with correlated outcomes

描述（由申请人提供）：荟萃分析是用于综合一系列研究数据的统计程序。因此，它是酗酒和药物滥用、医学、社会科学、生态学、教育、老年学等许多领域循证政策的核心。当前一代的元分析软件是为每项研究对分析贡献一个（且只有一个）效应大小的情况而设计的。然而，许多荟萃分析确实纳入了报告不止一种效应大小的研究。特别是，研究有时会报告多个结果、多个时间点和/或多个干预措施的效果。在这些情况下，不能使用标准公式和软件，也没有好的选择来执行分析。在这些情况下可以使用的唯一软件需要高水平的统计专业知识，并且还需要用户提供信息，例如结果之间的关联矩阵，而这些信息是用户不可能拥有的。因此，作为一个实际问题，没有好的选择来进行涉及多个效应量的元分析。在一系列早期的资助下，我们开发了一个荟萃分析项目，目前在全球约10,000家机构中使用，其中包括数千家医院、大学和FDA、CDC、NIH、WHO等机构。我们的计划是将其扩展到报告多个效应大小的研究中，并且不需要用户提供相关矩阵。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Meta-analysis is the statistical procedure employed to synthesize data from a series of studies. As such, it falls at the core of evidence-based policy in such fields as alcohol and substance abuse, medicine, social science, ecology, education, gerontology, among many others. The current generation of meta-analysis software is designed for the situation where each study contributes one (and only one) effect size to the analysis. However, many meta-analyses do incorporate studies that report more than one effect size. In particular, studies sometimes report effects for more than one outcome, for more than one time-point, and/or for more than one intervention. In these cases the standard formulas and software cannot be used, and there are no good options for performing the analysis. The only software that can be used in these cases requires a high level of statistical expertise, and additionally requires the user to provide information, such as the correlation matrix among outcomes, that the user is not likely to have. Therefore, as a practical matter, there are no good options for performing a meta-analysis involving more than one effect size. Under a series of earlier grants we developed a program for meta-analysis that is currently in use at some 10,000 institutions around the world, including thousands of hospitals, universities, and agencies such as the FDA, CDC, NIH, WHO, among many others. Our plan is to expand this to work with studies that report more than one effect size, and that will not require the user to supply a correlation matrix. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The current generation of software for meta-analysis can only be used when each study provides a single effect size. The goal of this project is to develop software for meta-analysis that can be used when some (or all) studies report an effect for multiple outcomes, time-points, or treatments. This software will not require the user to provide a correlation matrix among effects.