Practical Considerations and Challenges When Conducting an Individual Participant Data (IPD) Meta-Analysis

Sarah J Nevitt; Catrin Tudur Smith

doi:10.1007/978-1-0716-1566-9_16

Practical Considerations and Challenges When Conducting an Individual Participant Data (IPD) Meta-Analysis

Methods Mol Biol. 2022:2345:263-278. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-1566-9_16.

Authors

Sarah J Nevitt¹, Catrin Tudur Smith²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Health Data Science, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK. [email protected].
² Department of Health Data Science, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.

PMID: 34550596
DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-1566-9_16

Abstract

This chapter provides a broad overview of the use of individual participant (sometimes referred to as patient) data (IPD ) within meta-analyses, the associated advantages of using IPD in meta-analysis compared to aggregate data, and when IPD should be used in meta-analysis.This chapter also outlines the steps of conducting an IPD meta-analysis, with practical guidance relating to requesting and obtaining IPD for meta-analysis. Challenges that can be associated with conducting an IPD meta-analysis are also discussed, including consideration of availability bias, when a subset of the relevant IPD is not available for meta-analysis.

Keywords: Availability bias; Data sharing; Individual participant data; Individual patient data; Logistics; Meta-analysis.

MeSH terms

Bias
Data Analysis*
Humans
Meta-Analysis as Topic*