Hi,
I should performe a network meta-analysis and I would like to know if in the protocol of systematic review for NMA I can exclude the RCTs that assess the same drug with different dosage or instead is better include that kind of RCT in the systematic review and exclude them in the NMA directly.
Many thanks,
Giuseppe
You are not allowed to exclude a study as long as it fits your inclusion criteria.
Mahmound is correct Giuseppe. If different drug dosage results in different (or the same) results then this needs to be reported - either as a variable or a confounding variable.
I would advise you to include all studies on all doses and highlight whether increasing the dose was associated with more improvement? or safety issues? This can be further examined by a Meta-regression analysis.
Thank you all. I agree with you. In this case I know that studies with different dosages of drugs cannot be used to build a network, and since SLR is functional to NMA I could in this way avoid work that will not be useful for the purpose of my study.What do you think about?
Depending upon your inclusion and exclusion criteria you can do that.
Hi Pombilio,
I would agree with Dean and Moh thoughts. In addition, different doses could help in conducting a meta-regression in which you will be able to see if intensive doses could lead to a better outcome or not.
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