[R-meta] specification of phi in vcalc

James Pustejovsky jepu@to @end|ng |rom gm@||@com
Mon Aug 15 20:58:16 CEST 2022


Hi Danielle,

My reaction is very similar to Michael's. These results don't seem
especially sensitive to the choice of phi. I think you might be able to
simply report them as is and note that the significance of one of the
coefficients is somewhat sensitive to the assumed value of
auto-correlation.

The only other thing that occurs to me is that you might also consider
reporting sensitivity analyses based on models with other random effect
structures, such as struct = "HCS" or struct = "CS" or struct = "ID". With
the model that you've fit, struct = "CAR", it seems that there is little or
no correlation between the random effects for a given study at different
time points. As a result, the estimated average effects at each time point
are more or less equivalent to what you would get from estimating separate
random effects models for the effect sizes from a given time-point. Using
other struct arguments might give some indication of the robustness of this
pattern.

James


On Mon, Aug 15, 2022 at 7:57 AM Michael Dewey <lists using dewey.myzen.co.uk>
wrote:

> Dear Danielle
>
> I do not pretend to be an expert on these more complicated models but to
> my eyes the output from all values of phi is very similar. Are you
> perhaps over-interpreting a small change in the p-value which takes it
> from one side of an arbitrary cut-off to another?
>
> Michael
>
> On 14/08/2022 01:21, Danielle Hiam wrote:
> > Hi James,
> >
> > Very happy to share the data. To give you a brief overview, I am trying
> to run a correlated and hierarchical meta-analysis to investigate changes
> in microRNA expression after a acute bout of exercise. Each of the primary
> studies have differing time points so I have picked the most “common”
> timepoints (PRE, POST, 1-2hour post exercise and 24 hours post exercise)
> and dummy coded them as follows -1 (PRE), 0(POST), 1(within 1-2HP) and 2
> (24HP). I have chosen to use the fold change from PRE as values as these
> would then be standard measurement across all the studies.
> >
> > * How many studies you've got:
> > I am doing multiple meta-analysis of several microRNAs. To give you an
> idea miRNA-1 has 14 studies, miR-133a 16 studies etc...
> >
> > * How many effect sizes per study (on average and the range of effect
> sizes per study; quartiles would be great too): miRNA-1: mean: 2.30 (total
> 46obs). miR-133a= mean 2.22 (total 51obs)
> > Average, median and IQR for miR-133a
> >                   Time  mean MEDIAN   IQR
> > 1                  -1         1          1           0
> > 2                   0      2.23      1.2         1.71
> > 3                   1      1.54      1.49       1.08
> > 4                  2       1.42      1.27      1.06
> >
> > * Your model specification, including both what moderators are included
> and how you've specified the random effects:
> > This is my code:
> > V <- vcalc(FC_SD, cluster=cohort.in.study,
> >               time1=Time_NUM, data = dat2,  phi=0.6)
> >
> > rma.mv(yi = FC_MEAN,
> >              V = V,
> >              data = dat2,
> >              mods = ~ factor(Time_NUM),
> >              random = list (~ Time_NUM|cohort.in.study),
> >              struct = "CAR")
> > As the timepoints are not evenly spaced but are dependent (repeated
> measures) I ran CAR for the struct argument.
> > Cohort.in.study is a unique ID to indicate that the timepoints within
> the cohort are dependent while timepoints outside this cohort are
> independent.
> >
> > * For any included moderators, whether they are study-level
> characteristics (constant across the effect sizes for a given study) or
> effect-level characteristics (that vary within study).
> > I have chosen timepoints that are common across the studies (PRE, POST,
> 1-2hour post exercise and 24 hours post exercise). For example I dummy
> coded them as follows -1 (PRE), 0(POST), 1(within 1-2HP) and 2 (24HP)
> >
> > * If you're open to sharing, the results of fitting the model with
> different values of phi, to provide a sense of how much the estimates
> change.
> > No worries see below for the miRNA-133a results. You will see while
> estimates don’t change drastically, the results from phi 0.4, 0.5 and 0.6
> are borderline significant and when I change the phi to be above 0.7 they
> become significant. The QE also changes but it remains significant for all
> values of phi.
> >
> > Phi 0.4                    estim   sqrt  fixed
> >                  tau^2      1.791  1.338     no
> >                  rho        0.000            no
> >                  Test for Residual Heterogeneity:
> >                  QE(df = 47) = 192.076,  p-val < .001
> >                  Model Results:
> >                                     estimate    se¹   tval¹    df¹
> pval¹  ci.lb¹  ci.ub¹     <U+200B>
> >                  intrcpt               0.983  0.040  24.415  12.72
> <.001   0.896   1.070  ***
> >                  factor(Time_NUM)0     1.353  0.571   2.368  16.51
> 0.030   0.145   2.560    *
> >                  factor(Time_NUM)1     0.773  0.226   3.416  11.63
> 0.005   0.278   1.268   **
> >                  factor(Time_NUM)2     0.519  0.242   2.146   7.06
> 0.069  -0.052   1.089    .
> >
> >
> > Phi     0.5                estim   sqrt  fixed
> >                  tau^2      1.824  1.351     no
> >                  rho        0.000            no
> >                  Test for Residual Heterogeneity:
> >                  QE(df = 47) = 213.811,  p<0.001
> >                  Model Results:
> >                                     estimate    se¹   tval¹    df¹
> pval¹  ci.lb¹  ci.ub¹     <U+200B>
> >                  intrcpt               0.978  0.050  19.485  12.76
> <.001   0.870   1.087  ***
> >                  factor(Time_NUM)0     1.361  0.580   2.348  16.45
> 0.032   0.135   2.587    *
> >                  factor(Time_NUM)1     0.800  0.235   3.409  11.56
> 0.005   0.286   1.313   **
> >                  factor(Time_NUM)2     0.541  0.240   2.257   7.05
> 0.058  -0.025   1.106    .
> >
> > Phi     0.6                estim   sqrt  fixed
> >                  tau^2      1.865  1.366     no
> >                  rho        0.000            no
> >                  Test for Residual Heterogeneity:
> >                  QE(df = 47) = 249.228, p<0.001
> >                  Model Results:
> >                                     estimate    se¹   tval¹    df¹
> pval¹  ci.lb¹  ci.ub¹     <U+200B>
> >                  intrcpt               0.974  0.060  16.213  12.82
> <.001   0.844   1.104  ***
> >                  factor(Time_NUM)0     1.369  0.588   2.328  16.39
> 0.033   0.125   2.614    *
> >                  factor(Time_NUM)1     0.822  0.244   3.376  11.48
> 0.006   0.289   1.356   **
> >                  factor(Time_NUM)2     0.564  0.239   2.358   7.01
> 0.050  -0.001   1.130    .
> >
> > Phi     0.8                estim   sqrt  fixed
> >                  tau^2      1.965  1.402     no
> >                  rho        0.000            no
> >                  Test for Residual Heterogeneity:
> >                  QE(df = 47) = 439.477, p<0.001
> >                  Model Results:
> >                                     estimate    se¹   tval¹    df¹
> pval¹  ci.lb¹  ci.ub¹     <U+200B>
> >                  intrcpt               0.965  0.079  12.157  12.95
> <.001   0.794   1.137  ***
> >                  factor(Time_NUM)0     1.387  0.606   2.291  16.27
> 0.036   0.105   2.670    *
> >                  factor(Time_NUM)1     0.857  0.262   3.265  11.24
> 0.007   0.281   1.433   **
> >                  factor(Time_NUM)2     0.612  0.246   2.493   6.90
> 0.042   0.030   1.194    *
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: R-sig-meta-analysis <r-sig-meta-analysis-bounces using r-project.org>
> On Behalf Of James Pustejovsky
> > Sent: Thursday, 4 August 2022 1:12 PM
> > To: Lukasz Stasielowicz <lukasz.stasielowicz using uni-osnabrueck.de>
> > Cc: R meta <r-sig-meta-analysis using r-project.org>
> > Subject: Re: [R-meta] specification of phi in vcalc
> >
> > Hi Danielle,
> >
> > Just to add a little to Lukasz's suggestions (which I think are
> excellent), it is a little unusual and surprising that your results are
> very sensitive to changing the value of phi from 0.6 to 0.8. If you can
> provide a bit more detail about the structure of your data and model, I may
> be able to offer some suggestions on how to interpret this sensitivity.
> Specifically, it would be useful to know:
> > * How many studies you've got
> > * How many effect sizes per study (on average and the range of effect
> sizes per study; quartiles would be great too)
> > * Your model specification, including both what moderators are included
> and how you've specified the random effects
> > * For any included moderators, whether they are study-level
> characteristics (constant across the effect sizes for a given study) or
> effect-level characteristics (that vary within study).
> > * If you're open to sharing, the results of fitting the model with
> different values of phi, to provide a sense of how much the estimates
> change.
> >
> > Incidentally, this issue is closely related to something I'm studying
> right
> > now: https://www.jepusto.com/talk/srsm-2022-matter-of-emphasis/
> >
> > James
> >
> > On Wed, Aug 3, 2022 at 10:14 AM Lukasz Stasielowicz <
> lukasz.stasielowicz using uni-osnabrueck.de> wrote:
> >
> >> Dear Danielle,
> >>
> >> vcalc documentation contains a potentially helpful tip: "Argument phi
> >> must then also be specified to indicate the autocorrelation among the
> >> sampling errors of two effect sizes that differ by one unit on the
> >> time1 variable. As above, the autocorrelation of the measurements
> >> themselves can be used here as a proxy."
> >> https://rdrr.io/github/wviechtb/metafor/man/vcalc.html
> >>
> >> Perhaps some tables in primary studies show correlations between
> >> neighboring time points?
> >>
> >> Another option: If raw data are available for some primary studies,
> >> then one could estimate the correlation for several data sets and use
> >> it as "phi" input for vcalc. If different data sets lead to different
> >> values, then one could test different values in sensitivity analyses.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Best,
> >> Lukasz
> >> --
> >> Lukasz Stasielowicz
> >> Osnabrück University
> >> Institute for Psychology
> >> Research methods, psychological assessment, and evaluation
> >> Seminarstraße 20
> >> 49074 Osnabrück (Germany)
> >>
> >> See also:
> >> On 03.08.2022 12:00, r-sig-meta-analysis-request using r-project.org wrote:
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> >>>      1. specification of phi in vcalc (Danielle Hiam)
> >>>
> >>> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>> --
> >>>
> >>> Message: 1
> >>> Date: Wed, 3 Aug 2022 06:54:48 +0000
> >>> From: Danielle Hiam <danielle.hiam using deakin.edu.au>
> >>> To: "r-sig-meta-analysis using r-project.org"
> >>>        <r-sig-meta-analysis using r-project.org>
> >>> Subject: [R-meta] specification of phi in vcalc
> >>> Message-ID:
> >>>        <
> >> ME3PR01MB54642B304670F1BF825E6F60B79C9 using ME3PR01MB5464.ausprd01.prod.out
> >> look.com
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> >>>
> >>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> >>>
> >>> Hello,
> >>>
> >>> I am running a meta-analysis that has nested data and dependent
> >>> effect
> >> sizes (multiple timepoints). Therefore, I need to take into account
> >> effect sizes that are correlated and also cluster within studies. I
> >> will run vcalc, then the rma.mv function and then use robust with
> >> clubsandwich set to true to "correct" for any mis-specification of the
> >> model. However, I am looking for some clarification regarding how to
> >> "guess" the value for phi in the vcalc function, R code: V <-
> >> vcalc(FC_SD, cluster, time1=Time_NUM, data, phi=0.6).
> >>>
> >>> When I change phi from 0.6 to 0.8 in vcalc I get very different
> >>> results
> >> from the meta-analysis (rma.mv followed by robust(.... Clubsanwich=T).
> >> I have read James Pustejovsky paper (DOI:
> >> https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-021-01246-3) on this, where he suggests
> >> that in situations where no information is available, the meta-analyst
> >> might pick a plausible value and then conduct sensitivity analysis
> >> across a range reasonable values. How would I go about this?
> >>>
> >>> Any information regarding specification of phi would be greatly
> >> appreciated
> >>>
> >>> Thanks,
> >>> Danielle
> >>>
> >>> Deakin University
> >>> Melbourne Burwood Campus, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood VIC 3125
> >>> danielle.hiam using deakin.edu.au ipan.deakin.edu.au Deakin University
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> --
> Michael
> http://www.dewey.myzen.co.uk/home.html
>
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