[R-meta] Chi-square or F-test to test for subgroup heterogeneity

[Ty Beal]

Hi all,

I estimated mean frequency of consumption as well as prevalence of less-than-daily fruit and vegetable consumption, at-least-daily carbonated beverage consumption, and at-least-weekly fast food consumption among school-going adolescents aged primarily 12-17 years from Africa, Asia, Oceania, and Latin America between 2008 and 2015. Random-effects meta-analysis was used to pool estimates globally and by WHO region, World Bank income group, and food system typology.

To keep things simple, I will just ask about region. There are 5 regions included in the analysis. I would like to first test whether there is significant heterogeneity between all regions (omnibus test), and if so then do pairwise tests between specific regions. I am using rma.mv() with mods as the 5 regions and want to know whether I should use the default “z” statistic, which for the omnibus test is based on a chi-square distribution or “t”, which for the omnibus test is based on the F-distribution.

Best,

Ty Beal, PhD
Technical Specialist
Knowledge Leadership

GAIN – Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition
1509 16th Street NW, 7th Floor | Washington, DC 20036
tbeal using gainhealth.org<mailto:atumilowicz using gainhealth.org>
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Skype: tyroniousbeal
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