[R-meta] ci.ub and ci.lb Interpretation for Categorical Variables

[Jake Downs]

As a novice researcher, I learn so much through following this group.
Thanks to everyone's contributions.

This is almost a silly question, but I would rather double check here than
be embarrassed somewhere else.

How do you interpret the confidence interval output for categorical
variables in metafor? See output below:

##            estimate    se   zval  pval  ci.lb  ci.ub
## intrcpt        0.61  0.29   2.09  0.04   0.04   1.18  *
## methodNIM      0.26  0.44   0.59  0.56  -0.61   1.12
## methodPR      -0.19  0.39  -0.48  0.63  -0.95   0.57
## methodR2I      0.11  0.42   0.25  0.80  -0.73   0.94

Are the confidence intervals:

in reference to the intercept?

in reference to the categorical variable?

true values?


For example which is the correct interpretation for the 95% confidence
interval for methodNIM?


a) 0 - 1.73 (added/subtracted  from the intercept estimate)

b) 0.26 - 1.99 (added/subtracted from the NIM estimate of b = 0.87)

c) -0.61 - 1.12 (what is listed in the output)

d)  Something else


My guess is 'b', but I would appreciate someone double checking my work.

Thank you in advance,

Jake Downs
PhD Student, Utah State University

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