title: Consistency and inconsistency in network meta-analysis: model estimation using multivariate meta-regression.
abstract: Network meta-analysis (multiple treatments meta-analysis, mixed treatment comparisons) attempts to make the best use of a set of studies comparing more than two treatments. However, it is important to assess whether a body of evidence is consistent or inconsistent. Previous work on models for network meta-analysis that allow for heterogeneity between studies has either been restricted to two-arm trials or followed a Bayesian framework. We propose two new frequentist ways to estimate consistency and inconsistency models by expressing them as multivariate random-effects meta-regressions, which can be implemented in some standard software packages. We illustrate the approach using the mvmeta package in Stata. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
authors.affiliation: MRC Biostatistics Unit, Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: Ian R
authors.initials: IR
authors.lastname: White
authors.affiliation: MRC Biostatistics Unit, Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: Jessica K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Barrett
authors.affiliation: MRC Biostatistics Unit, Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jackson
authors.affiliation: MRC Biostatistics Unit, Cambridge, UK.|Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, University of York, UK.
authors.forename: Julian P T
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Higgins