Progress and challenges of network meta-analysis

Jinhui Tian; Ya Gao; Junhua Zhang; Zhirong Yang; Shengjie Dong; Tiansong Zhang; Feng Sun; Shanshan Wu; Jiarui Wu; Junfeng Wang; Liang Yao; Long Ge; Lun Li; Chunhu Shi; Quan Wang; Jiang Li; Ye Zhao; Yue Xiao; Fengwen Yang; Jinchun Fan; Shisan Bao; Fujian Song

doi:10.1111/jebm.12443

Progress and challenges of network meta-analysis

J Evid Based Med. 2021 Sep;14(3):218-231. doi: 10.1111/jebm.12443. Epub 2021 Aug 30.

Authors

Jinhui Tian^{1

2}, Ya Gao^{1

2}, Junhua Zhang³, Zhirong Yang⁴, Shengjie Dong⁵, Tiansong Zhang⁶, Feng Sun⁷, Shanshan Wu⁸, Jiarui Wu⁹, Junfeng Wang¹⁰, Liang Yao¹¹, Long Ge^{2

12}, Lun Li¹³, Chunhu Shi¹⁴, Quan Wang¹⁵, Jiang Li¹⁶, Ye Zhao^{17

18}, Yue Xiao¹⁹, Fengwen Yang³, Jinchun Fan²⁰, Shisan Bao^{20

21}, Fujian Song²²

Affiliations

¹ Evidence-Based Medicine Center, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China.
² Key Laboratory of Evidence-Based Medicine and Knowledge Translation of Gansu Province, Lanzhou, China.
³ Evidence-Based Medicine Center, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, China.
⁴ Primary Care Unit, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, School of Clinical Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
⁵ Orthopedic Department, Yantaishan Hospital, Yantai, Shandong, China.
⁶ Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jing'an District Central Hospital, Shanghai, China.
⁷ Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing, China.
⁸ National Clinical Research Center of Digestive Diseases, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
⁹ Department of Clinical Chinese Pharmacy, School of Chinese Materia Medica, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China.
¹⁰ Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Clinical Pharmacology, Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
¹¹ Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.
¹² Evidence-Based Social Science Research Center, School of Public Health, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China.
¹³ Department of Breast Cancer, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
¹⁴ Division of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work, School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
¹⁵ Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Peking University People's Hospital, Beijing, China.
¹⁶ National Cancer Center/National Clinical Research Center for Cancer/Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
¹⁷ First Clinical Medical College, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China.
¹⁸ Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana.
¹⁹ China National Health Development Research Center, Beijing, China.
²⁰ Epidemiology and Evidence Based-Medicine, School of Public Health, Gansu University of Chinese Medicine, Lanzhou, China.
²¹ Sydney, NSW, Australia.
²² Public Health and Health Services Research, Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.

PMID: 34463038
DOI: 10.1111/jebm.12443

Abstract

In the past years, network meta-analysis (NMA) has been widely used among clinicians, guideline makers, and health technology assessment agencies and has played an important role in clinical decision-making and guideline development. To inform further development of NMAs, we conducted a bibliometric analysis to assess the current status of published NMA methodological studies, summarized the methodological progress of seven types of NMAs, and discussed the current challenges of NMAs.

Keywords: bibliometric analysis; diagnostic test accuracy; individual participant data; methodological advances; network meta-analysis.

Publication types

Meta-Analysis
Review

MeSH terms

Network Meta-Analysis
Publications*