Handling Related Publications Reporting Real-world Evidence in Network Meta-analysis: a Case Study in Multiple Sclerosis

Overview

Journal J Comp Eff Res

Specialty Health Services

Date 2023 Jul 29

PMID 37515491

Authors

Marissa Betts

Kyle Fahrbach

Binod Neupane

Mahmoud Slim

Maria Pia Sormani

Gary Cutter

Thomas Pa Debray

Marvin Rock

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The presence of two or more publications that report on overlapping patient cohorts poses a challenge for quantitatively synthesizing real-world evidence (RWE) studies. Thus, we evaluated eight approaches for handling such related publications in network meta-analyses (NMA) of RWE studies. Bayesian NMAs were conducted to estimate the annualized relapse rate (ARR) of disease-modifying therapies in multiple sclerosis. The NMA explored the impact of hierarchically selecting one pivotal study from related publications versus including all of them while adjusting for correlations. When selecting one pivotal study from related publications, the ARR ratios were mostly similar regardless of the pivotal study selected. When including all related publications, there were shifts in the point estimates and the statistical significance. An hierarchy should guide the selection among related publications in NMAs of RWE. Sensitivity analyses modifying the hierarchy should be considered for networks with few or small studies.

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