[R-meta] Equivalence testing for subgroup analysis in MA - TOSTER package

[Jorge Teixeira]

Dear All,

Suppose someone is interested in doing equivalence testing in a MA for a
subgroup analysis, for example, men vs women.

The code used below is from the TOSTER package.

*1)* If one is using SMD as the ES, one can use meta-regression and enter
the coefficient and SE with the following formula, correct?

TOSTER::TOSTmeta
TOSTmeta(ES, var, se, low_eqbound_d, high_eqbound_d, alpha, plot = TRUE,
verbose = TRUE)


*2.1)* But what if the ES is MD? The previous code only works for SMD.

Can we calculate the SD for each subgroup using a formula (*95%CI: dividing
the length of the confidence interval by 3.92, and then multiplying by the
square root of the sample size*) and then plugging in the following code
for comparing 2 groups (raw values)?

TOSTER::TOSTtwo.raw
TOSTtwo.raw(m1, m2, sd1, sd2, n1, n2, low_eqbound, high_eqbound, alpha,
var.equal, plot = TRUE, verbose = TRUE)

*2.1*) Entering the tau2 instead SD directly in the previous formula would
be incorrect?

*3) *Any other alternative?

Thanks and regards,
JT

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