<div dir="ltr"><div>Thanks a lot for this Gerta, it is most useful. <br>I had looked into the help and the documentation for netmeta but somehow had not traced things back to the forest.meta help file. Guess I still have bit of a way to learn with finding my way in R.<br></div><div>With best wishes, <br></div><div>Carla<br></div><div><br></div><div><div><br><div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Jul 28, 2017 at 9:41 PM, Gerta Rücker <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ruecker@imbi.uni-freiburg.de" target="_blank">ruecker@imbi.uni-freiburg.de</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<div class="m_2907069745314155721m_1581043067741940012m_2990246986634472557m_-3463383909194376879m_1324287103760207016moz-cite-prefix">Dear Carla,<br>
<br>
The help file of the function forest.meta shows that the size of
these boxes (there called squares) is proportional to the study
weights (that may be inverse variances or may be determined
otherwise, see argument weight.study) or (for netmeta) comparison
weights. The width of these squares has no precise meaning, they
can be interpreted only relatively to each other: A study /
comparison with greater weight obtains a bigger square:<br>
<br>
weight.study: A character string indicating weighting used to
determine<br>
size of squares or diamonds (argument ‘type.study’) to
plot<br>
individual study results. One of missing, ‘"same"’,<br>
‘"fixed"’, or ‘"random"’, can be abbreviated. Plot
symbols<br>
have the same size for all studies or represent study
weights<br>
from fixed effect or random effects model.<br>
<br>
The colours of the square have merely practical meaning: The
default colour of the square is gray, and the default colour of
the confidence interval is black. If the study has large weight,
the square may become wider than the confidence interval, and then
the confidence interval (the "cross") becomes white. The square
can also be so small that it looks like a vertical line. <br>
<br>
All these colours and properties may be changed by corresponding
arguments, such as col.square, col.square.lines, squaresize. See
help(forest.meta).<br>
<br>
Best,<br>
Gerta<span><br>
<br>
<br>
On 07/28/2017 05:08 AM, Carla Gomez Creutzberg wrote:<br>
</span></div>
<blockquote type="cite"><span>
<div dir="ltr">
<div>Greetings everyone,<br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I am conducting my first network meta-analysis and for that
I have been using netmeta. <br>
<br>
I've read a bit on general and network meta-analysis I can;t
seem to find any indication as to how to interpret the grey
boxes or interval demarcations that show up in netmeta's
forest plots? <br>
<br>
<img src="cid:part1.4F4B3587.7C080584@imbi.uni-freiburg.de" alt="Inline image 1" width="480" height="480"><br>
<br>
As shown in the image above (can also be found in the
attachments as "forest.pl.jpeg"), these boxes appear to be
plotted around some (or perhaps all) of the model estimates.
In some cases they also appear to encompass an interval longer
than the 95%CI intervals for the estimate which is then shown
in white instead of black ink. I was wondering what type of
interval was represented by these boxes and it was something
that was estimated for all treatments or only some of them?<br>
<br>
</div>
<div>In addition, for a couple of the meta-analyses I am doing I
have found that the evidence networks are not well connected
and end up as two separate sub-networks. I was wondering
whether it was appropriate to conduct separate meta-analyses
on the individual sub-networks or whether there was any other
way to try and tackle the analysis in these cases?<br>
<br>
</div>
<div>Thanks a lot for attention and any suggestions you can
provide
<div class="m_2907069745314155721m_1581043067741940012m_2990246986634472557m_-3463383909194376879m_1324287103760207016gmail-yj6qo m_2907069745314155721m_1581043067741940012m_2990246986634472557m_-3463383909194376879m_1324287103760207016gmail-ajU">
<div id="m_2907069745314155721m_1581043067741940012m_2990246986634472557m_-3463383909194376879m_1324287103760207016gmail-:11o" class="m_2907069745314155721m_1581043067741940012m_2990246986634472557m_-3463383909194376879m_1324287103760207016gmail-ajR"><span class="m_2907069745314155721m_1581043067741940012m_2990246986634472557m_-3463383909194376879m_1324287103760207016gmail-HOEnZb m_2907069745314155721m_1581043067741940012m_2990246986634472557m_-3463383909194376879m_1324287103760207016gmail-adL"></span><br>
<span class="m_2907069745314155721m_1581043067741940012m_2990246986634472557m_-3463383909194376879m_1324287103760207016gmail-HOEnZb m_2907069745314155721m_1581043067741940012m_2990246986634472557m_-3463383909194376879m_1324287103760207016gmail-adL"></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<span class="m_2907069745314155721m_1581043067741940012m_2990246986634472557m_-3463383909194376879m_1324287103760207016gmail-HOEnZb m_2907069745314155721m_1581043067741940012m_2990246986634472557m_-3463383909194376879m_1324287103760207016gmail-adL"><font color="#888888">
<div>Carla</div>
</font></span></div>
<div class="gmail_extra"><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Jul 28, 2017 at 3:07 PM, Carla
Gomez Creutzberg <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:cgomezcre@gmail.com" target="_blank">cgomezcre@gmail.com</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>Greetings everyone,<br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I am conducting my first network meta-analysis and
for that I have been using netmeta. <br>
<br>
I've read a bit on general and network meta-analysis I
can;t seem to find any indication as to how to interpret
the grey boxes or interval demarcations that show up in
netmeta's forest plots? <br>
<br>
<img src="cid:part1.4F4B3587.7C080584@imbi.uni-freiburg.de" alt="Inline image 2" width="480" height="480"><br>
<br>
As shown in the image above (can also be found in the
attachments as "forest.pl.jpeg"), these boxes appear to
be plotted around some (or perhaps all) of the model
estimates. In some cases they also appear to encompass
an interval longer than the 95%CI intervals for the
estimate which is then shown in white instead of black
ink. I was wondering what type of interval was
represented by these boxes and it was something that was
estimated for all treatments or only some of them?<br>
<br>
</div>
<div>In addition, for a couple of the meta-analyses I am
doing I have found that the evidence networks are not
well connected and end up as two separate sub-networks.
I was wondering whether it was appropriate to conduct
separate meta-analyses on the individual sub-networks or
whether there was any other way to try and tackle the
analysis in these cases?<br>
<br>
</div>
<div>Thanks a lot for attention and any suggestions you
can provide<span class="m_2907069745314155721m_1581043067741940012m_2990246986634472557m_-3463383909194376879m_1324287103760207016HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
<br>
</font></span></div>
<span class="m_2907069745314155721m_1581043067741940012m_2990246986634472557m_-3463383909194376879m_1324287103760207016HOEnZb"><font color="#888888">
<div>Carla <br>
<div dir="ltr">
<div>
<div dir="ltr">
<div>
<div dir="ltr">
<div>
<div dir="ltr">
<div>
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<div> <br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</font></span></div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<br>
<br clear="all">
<br>
-- <br>
<div class="m_2907069745314155721m_1581043067741940012m_2990246986634472557m_-3463383909194376879m_1324287103760207016gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>
<div dir="ltr">
<div>
<div dir="ltr">
<div>
<div dir="ltr">
<div>
<div dir="ltr">
<div>
<div dir="ltr">
<div>
<div dir="ltr"><b>Carla Gómez
Creutzberg</b><br>
PhD. Candidate - <a href="http://www.tylianakislab.org/the-group.html" target="_blank">Tylianakis
Lab</a><br>
University of Canterbury - <span lang="en-NZ"><font size="2" color="black" face="Tahoma"><span dir="ltr" style="font-size:10pt"><font size="2" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:16px"><font size="2" face="Tahoma"><span style="font-size:10pt"><font size="1"><span style="font-size:13px"><font size="2"><i>Te
Whare Wānanga
o Waitaha</i></font><font size="2"><i><br>
</i></font></span></font></span></font></span></font></span></font></span>Christchurch,
New Zealand <br>
</div>
<div><a href="mailto:cgomezcre@gmail.com" target="_blank">cgomezcre@gmail.com</a>
<br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<br>
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<br>
</span><pre>______________________________<wbr>_________________
R-sig-meta-analysis mailing list
<a class="m_2907069745314155721m_1581043067741940012m_2990246986634472557m_-3463383909194376879m_1324287103760207016moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:R-sig-meta-analysis@r-project.org" target="_blank">R-sig-meta-analysis@r-project.<wbr>org</a>
<a class="m_2907069745314155721m_1581043067741940012m_2990246986634472557m_-3463383909194376879m_1324287103760207016moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-meta-analysis" target="_blank">https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/l<wbr>istinfo/r-sig-meta-analysis</a></pre>
</blockquote>
<p><br>
</p>
<pre class="m_2907069745314155721m_1581043067741940012m_2990246986634472557m_-3463383909194376879m_1324287103760207016moz-signature" cols="72">--
Dr. rer. nat. Gerta Rücker, Dipl.-Math.
Medical Faculty and Medical Center - University of Freiburg
Institute for Medical Biometry and Statistics
Stefan-Meier-Strasse 26, D-79104 Freiburg, Germany
Phone <a href="tel:+49%20761%202036673" value="+497612036673" target="_blank">+49 (0)761 2036673</a>
Fax <a href="tel:+49%20761%202036680" value="+497612036680" target="_blank">+49 (0)761 2036680</a>
Mail <a class="m_2907069745314155721m_1581043067741940012m_2990246986634472557m_-3463383909194376879m_1324287103760207016moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:ruecker@imbi.uni-freiburg.de" target="_blank">ruecker@imbi.uni-freiburg.de</a>
Web <a class="m_2907069745314155721m_1581043067741940012m_2990246986634472557m_-3463383909194376879m_1324287103760207016moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.imbi.uni-freiburg.de/biom/" target="_blank">www.imbi.uni-freiburg.de/biom/</a>
</pre>
</div>
</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="m_2907069745314155721m_1581043067741940012m_2990246986634472557m_-3463383909194376879gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><b>Carla Gómez Creutzberg</b><br>
PhD. Candidate - <a href="http://www.tylianakislab.org/the-group.html" target="_blank">Tylianakis Lab</a><br>
University of Canterbury - <span lang="en-NZ"><font size="2" color="black" face="Tahoma"><span dir="ltr" style="font-size:10pt"><font size="2" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:16px"><font size="2" face="Tahoma"><span style="font-size:10pt"><font size="1"><span style="font-size:13px"><font size="2"><i>Te
Whare Wānanga o Waitaha</i></font><font size="2"><i><br>
</i></font></span></font></span></font></span></font></span></font></span>Christchurch, New Zealand<a href="http://www.tylianakislab.org/the-group.html" target="_blank"></a> <br></div><div><a href="mailto:cgomezcre@gmail.com" target="_blank">cgomezcre@gmail.com</a> <br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
</div></div></div></div></div>