title: Methods for synthesizing findings on moderation effects across multiple randomized trials.
abstract: This paper presents new methods for synthesizing results from subgroup and moderation analyses across different randomized trials. We demonstrate that such a synthesis generally results in additional power to detect significant moderation findings above what one would find in a single trial. Three general methods for conducting synthesis analyses are discussed, with two methods, integrative data analysis and parallel analyses, sharing a large advantage over traditional methods available in meta-analysis. We present a broad class of analytic models to examine moderation effects across trials that can be used to assess their overall effect and explain sources of heterogeneity, and present ways to disentangle differences across trials due to individual differences, contextual level differences, intervention, and trial design.
authors.affiliation: University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL, USA. chbrown@med.miami.edu
authors.forename: C Hendricks
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: Zili
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Sloboda
authors.forename: Fabrizio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Faggiano
authors.forename: Brent
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Teasdale
authors.forename: Ferdinand
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Keller
authors.forename: Gregor
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Burkhart
authors.forename: Federica
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Vigna-Taglianti
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Howe
authors.forename: Katherine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Masyn
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Bengt
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Muthén
authors.forename: Peggy
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Stephens
authors.forename: Scott
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Grey
authors.forename: Tatiana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Perrino
mesh_terms: D015588:Observer Variation; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic