[R-meta] network meta-analysis - include block (within-study) level

[Juan Pablo Edwards Molina]

Dear list,

I have a dataset containing crop field randomized block design experiments
with observations at plot level (experimental unit), and I want to estimate
the treatments grain yield difference relative to a untreated check.

net1 <- rma.mv(yield, vi2, mods = ~ treatment, random = ~ treatment| trial,
                         method="ML", struct="UN", data=df)

where yield is the vector of mean treatments yield for vi2 is the vector of
sampling variances obtained by:

vi2 <- V_yield/n  (for each trial)

(V_yield = MSE from anova)

Do I need to include the block in the model? or using the experiment
treatments means will obtain the same results? I suppose something like:

net2 <- rma.mv(yield, vi2, mods = ~ treatment, random = ~ treatment| block|
trial,
                         method="ML", struct="UN", data=df)

If the latter would be a better approach, how do I include the sampling
variance?

Thanks in advance,

Juan Edwards

	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]