[R-meta] Meta-Analisys whit events numbers, RR, OR and HR. It's possibe?

[Dr. Gerta Rücker]

Dear Martin,

To add to Guido's answer, it seems that there is something wrong with 
your odds ratios. You see this when you use Guido's code: For the last 
two studies, the confidence intervals differ markedly from the entered 
values:

Entered:

>> OR (0,47 , 0.77, 072)
>> IC95% L (0.24, 0.52, 0.55)
>> IC95% U (0.91, 0.81, 0.89)

Result:

[...]
study 5   0.47 [0.24; 0.92]   OR
study 6   0.77 [0.62; 0.96]   OR
study 7   0.72 [0.57; 0.92]   OR

You also see this when looking whether the point estimate is the 
geometric mean (square root of the product) of upper and lower limit of 
the 95% CI - this is not the case for these studies. Please check.

Moreover, as I wrote before, the main problem is not a technical one 
(how to use R to mix these data), but a methodological issue. HR and OR 
don't describe the same thing. The heading is "Hazard ratio", because 
this is what you have written. Nevertheless, the odds ratios remain odds 
ratios and have a different interpretation. I don't know how to 
interpret the final result.

Both Guido and I recommended the Tierney paper to you, so please have a 
look into it.

Best,

Gerta

> Tierney JF, Stewart LA, Ghersi D, Burdett S, Sydes MR. Practical 
> methods for incorporating summary time-to-event data into 
> meta-analysis. Trials. 2007;8:16.
>