Abstract
Many healthcare interventions are complex, consisting of multiple, possibly interacting, components. Several methodological articles addressing complex interventions in the meta-analytical context have been published. We hereby provide an overview of methods used to evaluate the effects of complex interventions with meta-analytical models. We summarized the methodology, highlighted new developments, and described the benefits, drawbacks, and potential challenges of each identified method. We expect meta-analytical methods focusing on components of several multicomponent interventions to become increasingly popular due to recently developed, easy-to-use, software tools that can be used to conduct the relevant analyses. The different meta-analytical methods are illustrated through two examples comparing psychotherapies for panic disorder.
Publication types
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Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
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Review
MeSH terms
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Animals
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Data Analysis*
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Delivery of Health Care / methods*
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Humans
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Meta-Analysis as Topic
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Research Design*
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Software
Grants and funding
This work is part of the project “OPERAM: OPtimising thERapy to prevent Avoidable hospital admissions in the Multimorbid elderly” supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the grant agreement No. 634238. The work of MP, DM, HL.K, and NR is supported by the OPERAM project from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the grant agreement No. 634238. NR is also supported by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) under contract No. 15.0137. OE is supported by project grant No. 180083 from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). GR was funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), grant Nr. RU1747/1-2. The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official views of the EC and the Swiss government.