[R-meta] Question about MASEM with categorical predictors

Mike Cheung m|kew|cheung @end|ng |rom gm@||@com
Wed Nov 30 04:36:37 CET 2022 

Dear Catia,

There are several ways to analyze the data. One approach is the so-called
parameter-based MASEM in Cheung and Cheung (2016).

Here are the steps:
1) Run your regression model in each study in lavaan. The presence of
binary and categorical variables is fine.
2) Get the regression coefficients as effect sizes and their sampling
covariance matrices with coef() and vcov().
3) Conduct a multivariate meta-analysis on the computed effect sizes with
their sampling covariance matrices.

There are two illustrations in Cheung and Cheung (2016). The examples are
in Github at
https://github.com/mikewlcheung/code-in-articles/tree/master/Cheung%20and%20Cheung%202016
The most relevant one is "Illustration 2: Theory of Planned Behavior."

Cheung and Jak (2016) also use similar ideas. The data and R code are at
https://github.com/mikewlcheung/code-in-articles/tree/master/Cheung%20and%20Jak%202016

Cheung, M. W.-L., & Cheung, S. F. (2016). Random-effects models for
meta-analytic structural equation modeling: Review, issues, and
illustrations. Research Synthesis Methods, 7(2), 140–155.
https://doi.org/10.1002/jrsm.1166
Cheung, M. W.-L., & Jak, S. (2016). Analyzing big data in psychology: A
split/analyze/meta-analyze approach. *Frontiers in Psychology*, *7*(738).
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00738

Best,
Mike

On Tue, Nov 29, 2022 at 2:52 AM Catia Oliveira <catia.oliveira using york.ac.uk>
wrote:

> Dear Mike,
>
> I am sorry for bothering you again but I was informed my emails were
> not being received by the mailing list users. So what you are
> suggesting is for me to run the regression models on the raw data and
> then take the path coefficients. But how can I analyse them in a
> meta-analysis? Didn't you say it didn't work with categorical
> variables? Are you suggesting I use the sampling covariance matrix
> from the regression to run the two-staged analysis in the metaSEM
> package? I am a bit confused.
>
> Best wishes
> Catia
>
> On Wed, 23 Nov 2022 at 02:43, Mike Cheung <mikewlcheung using gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Dear Catia,
> >
> > If I understand it correctly, you use hetcor() or other functions to
> estimate a "correlation matrix" of continuous and binary variables and use
> this correlation matrix in tssem1() and then tssem2().
> >
> > The part about continuous variables should be fine. But I am not sure
> about the part on binary and continuous variables. Moreover, the meaning of
> including a latent variable with a threshold on gender is questionable.
> >
> > The most defensible approach is (1) fitting the regression model in each
> study, (2) estimating the path coefficients and their sampling covariance
> matrix, and (3) conducting a multivariate meta-analysis on the path
> coefficients.
> >
> > Best,
> > Mike
> >
> >
> > On Tue, Nov 22, 2022 at 10:25 PM Catia Oliveira <
> catia.oliveira using york.ac.uk> wrote:
> >>
> >> Just to make sure I understand, I would start by getting the
> correlations per study using the hetcor() (maybe the polychoric() from the
> psych package would be better since it computes a polychoric correlation
> matrix). I would then use  tssem1() to pool the correlation matrices across
> studies and then fit the model (Outcome ~ categorical variable + numerical
> variable + numerical variable) using sem(). Is that what you mean? I am
> sorry for taking so much out of your time but I have not been able to find
> any resources about this.
> >>
> >> Thank you,
> >>
> >> Catia
> >>
> >> On Tue, 22 Nov 2022 at 02:32, Mike Cheung <mikewlcheung using gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Dear Catia,
> >>>
> >>> You may use the wls() function to conduct the stage two analysis in
> the metaSEM package.
> >>>
> >>> However, It appears that hetcor does not compute the asymptotic
> sampling covariance matrix of the estimated correlations. Thus, the
> statistical inferences may be incorrect.
> >>>
> >>> If you want to use this approach, it is better to use the sem()
> function in the lavaan package. I believe that it can generate the
> asymptotic sampling covariance matrix of the estimated correlations.
> >>>
> >>> Best,
> >>> Mike
> >>>
> >>> On Mon, Nov 21, 2022 at 11:40 PM Catia Oliveira <
> catia.oliveira using york.ac.uk> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> Dear professor Mike,
> >>>>
> >>>> Thank you for your response. Wouldn't it be possible to run the path
> model I described if I used the hetcor() function in R on the raw data per
> study, where I would gather all the correlations between variables,
> including between gender and the numeric variables? Wouldn't this allow me
> to use the two staged approach you describe in "metaSEM: an R package for
> meta-analysis using structural equation modeling"?
> >>>>
> >>>> Thank you!
> >>>>
> >>>> Best wishes,
> >>>>
> >>>> Catia
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> On Sun, 13 Nov 2022 at 04:02, Mike Cheung <mikewlcheung using gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Dear Catia,
> >>>>>
> >>>>> If you have the raw data, you may use either a multiple-group SEM or
> multilevel SEM (assuming all variables are in comparable scales across
> studies). However, you may need to standardize or harmonize the variables
> before the analyses if the variables are not directly comparable across
> studies.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> It may be tricky to pool correlation matrices when there are
> categorical variables.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> An alternative is to fit the regression model in each group and
> meta-analyze the regression coefficients. There was some discussion in the
> following paper.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Cheung, M. W.-L., & Cheung, S. F. (2016). Random-effects models for
> meta-analytic structural equation modeling: Review, issues, and
> illustrations. Research Synthesis Methods, 7(2), 140–155.
> https://doi.org/10.1002/jrsm.1166
> >>>>>
> >>>>> I hope it helps.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Best,
> >>>>> Mike
> >>>>>
> >>>>> On Sun, Nov 13, 2022 at 11:00 AM Catia Oliveira <
> catia.oliveira using york.ac.uk> wrote:
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Thank you both for replying to my question.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> @Mike Cheung The categorical variable represents sex, so only
> female and male. We aim to include only studies that have reported all the
> predictors of interest in the meta-analysis, so we are not anticipating
> missing data. It is unclear whether we will have access to the raw data for
> all studies, as we will not be able to know until we start going through
> the literature, but first, we need to preregister the meta-analysis.
> However, we are trying to anticipate all situations. I have read about the
> work you have done with Susanne Jak, but it is not clear whether I could
> include categorical variables using that approach. It also seems to require
> a lot of data, which may not be our case.
> >>>>>> If we have access to the raw data and are able to fit the model on
> each dataset, do you have any suggestions for how to better analyse it?
> From what I've read it seems that we could analyse each factor loading on
> its own and run a meta-regression, would that be reasonable?
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Thank you.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Best wishes,
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Catia
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> On Sun, 13 Nov 2022 at 01:26, Mike Cheung <mikewlcheung using gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Dear Catia,
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Could you be more specific about how the data look like? For
> example,
> >>>>>>> do you have the raw data? If not, what types of summary statistics
> do you
> >>>>>>> have?
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> How many levels are in V1? How many groups are? Are there
> incomplete data?
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> --
> >>>>>>>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>>>>>  Mike W.L. Cheung               Phone: (65) 6516-3702
> >>>>>>>  Department of Psychology       Fax:   (65) 6773-1843
> >>>>>>>  National University of Singapore
> >>>>>>>  http://mikewlcheung.github.io/
> >>>>>>> <http://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/psycwlm/internet/>
> >>>>>>>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> On Sat, Nov 12, 2022 at 9:17 PM Lukasz Stasielowicz <
> >>>>>>> lukasz.stasielowicz using uni-osnabrueck.de> wrote:
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> > Dear Catia,
> >>>>>>> >
> >>>>>>> > Disclaimer: I am not up-to-date with MASEM advances so perhaps
> there is
> >>>>>>> > a more user-friendly solution. Consider checking recent work by
> Mike
> >>>>>>> > Cheung and Suzanne Jak for references about cutting-edge methods.
> >>>>>>> >
> >>>>>>> > If you have access to raw data then one could use the
> parameter-based
> >>>>>>> > MASEM approach. Since it is possible to use categorical
> predictors in
> >>>>>>> > lavaan/blavaan, one could fit the model separately for each
> sample and
> >>>>>>> > then pool the estimates. This approach has a clear practical
> limitation:
> >>>>>>> > all variables/categories need to be assessed in all studies,
> which is
> >>>>>>> > not always the case.
> >>>>>>> >
> >>>>>>> > Alternatively, one could fit separate models for each category
> (e.g.,
> >>>>>>> > women, men). After all, stratification is just another kind of
> adjusting
> >>>>>>> > for variables.
> >>>>>>> >
> >>>>>>> > Some references about the parameter-based approach can be found
> in this
> >>>>>>> > article:
> >>>>>>> > Cheung, M. W.-L. (2021). Meta-analytic structural equation
> modeling.
> >>>>>>> > Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Business and Management, Oxford
> >>>>>>> > University Press.
> https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190224851.013.225
> >>>>>>> >
> >>>>>>> >
> >>>>>>> > Best,
> >>>>>>> > Lukasz
> >>>>>>> > --
> >>>>>>> > Lukasz Stasielowicz
> >>>>>>> > Osnabrück University
> >>>>>>> > Institute for Psychology
> >>>>>>> > Research methods, psychological assessment, and evaluation
> >>>>>>> > Lise-Meitner-Straße 3
> >>>>>>> > 49076 Osnabrück (Germany)
> >>>>>>> > Twitter: https://twitter.com/l_stasielowicz
> >>>>>>> >
> >>>>>>> > On 06.11.2022 12:00, r-sig-meta-analysis-request using r-project.org
> wrote:
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> >>>>>>> > >     1. Question about MASEM with categorical predictors (Catia
> Oliveira)
> >>>>>>> > >
> >>>>>>> > >
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>>>>> > >
> >>>>>>> > > Message: 1
> >>>>>>> > > Date: Sat, 5 Nov 2022 23:21:10 +0000
> >>>>>>> > > From: Catia Oliveira <catia.oliveira using york.ac.uk>
> >>>>>>> > > To: R meta <r-sig-meta-analysis using r-project.org>
> >>>>>>> > > Subject: [R-meta] Question about MASEM with categorical
> predictors
> >>>>>>> > > Message-ID:
> >>>>>>> > >       <CACw+TfdnTK=kq4vLaJMQtS4rf9Ag=
> >>>>>>> > gRbHhcBV1T2bPbp1zPZTg using mail.gmail.com>
> >>>>>>> > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
> >>>>>>> > >
> >>>>>>> > > Dear all,
> >>>>>>> > >
> >>>>>>> > > Has any of you ever used MASEM with categorical predictors,
> where the
> >>>>>>> > path
> >>>>>>> > > model is "X1 ~ V1 + V2 + V3", with X1 as the outcome variable
> and V1 as a
> >>>>>>> > > categorical variable whilst V2 and V3 are continuous. If so,
> could you
> >>>>>>> > > please point me to the paper/code? I have only found examples
> of how to
> >>>>>>> > do
> >>>>>>> > > it with continuous predictors but never using categorical
> variables.
> >>>>>>> > >
> >>>>>>> > > Best wishes,
> >>>>>>> > >
> >>>>>>> > > Catia
> >>>>>>> > >
> >>>>>>> > >       [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> >>>>>>> > >
> >>>>>>> > >
> >>>>>>> > >
> >>>>>>> > >
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