Systematic reviews of prognostic studies IV: Meta-analytical approaches in systematic reviews of prognostic studies

Session: 

Workshop session 7: Friday, 11:00-12:30

Workshop category: 

  • Methods for conducting syntheses (including different evidence, searching and information retrieval, statistics, assessing methodological quality)
Status

ID: 

WS58
Date and Location

Date: 

Friday 15 September 2017 - 11:00 to 12:30

Location: 

Contact persons and facilitators

Contact person:

Facilitators: 

Carl Moons
Lotty Hooft
Thomas Debray
Target audience

Target audience: 

Reviewers with an interest in meta-analysis of prognostic studies

Level of difficulty: 

Advanced
Type of workshop

Type of workshop : 

Training
Abstract

Abstract:

Objectives: This workshop introduces participants to statistical methods for meta-analysis of the accuracy of a specific prediction model and of the added value of a specific predictor to an existing model. We discuss opportunities/challenges of the statistical methods and of common software packages.

Description: Prediction models are commonly developed and validated for predicting the presence (diagnostic) or future occurrence (prognostic) of a particular outcome. Prediction models have become abundant in the literature. Many models have been validated in numerous different studies/publications. Also, numerous studies investigate the added value of a certain predictor/biomarker to a specific existing prediction model. In both situations, aggregating such evidence is important for making inferences on the (added) predictive performance of a specific model or predictor/marker. Meta-analytical approaches for both situations have recently been developed.

In this workshop we illustrate these statistical approaches and how to combine – quantitatively - results from published studies on the predictive accuracy of a specific model or added predictive accuracy of a specific predictor. We illustrate this with various empirical examples.