The Hartung-Knapp-Sidik-Jonkman method for random effects meta-analysis is straightforward and considerably outperforms the standard DerSimonian-Laird method

Table 4 Conversion of DerSimonian-Laird results into Hartung-Knapp-Sidik-Jonkman results for a logarithm based outcome: hazard ratios

DerSimonian and Laird results			Calculations for Hartung-Knapp-Sidik Jonkman
Study	Study results HR y_i	Weights w_i	ln(y _i )	(ln(y _i )–ln(y)) ²	w _i×(ln(y _i )–ln(y)) ²
Cornelissen 2009	0.81	5.0	−0.21	0.00	0.02
De Witte 1994	0.67	2.1	−0.40	0.06	0.13
Fielding 2009	0.80	11.5	−0.22	0.01	0.06
Goldstone 2008	0.91	46.7	−0.09	0.00	0.15
Hunault 2004	0.56	2.9	−0.58	0.18	0.53
Labar 2004	0.98	9.3	−0.02	0.02	0.16
Ribera 2005	1.24	3.9	0.22	0.13	0.52
Sebban 1994	0.75	12.7	−0.29	0.02	0.24
Takeuchi 2002	0.95	3.9	−0.05	0.01	0.04
Ueda 1998	0.66	2.0	−0.42	0.07	0.14
	y = 0.86	Sum: 100.0			Sum: 1.99
10 studies, I² = 0.0, τ² = 0.0.
DL pooled result [95% CI]: HR = 0.86 [0.77, 0.97]; z = −2.48; P–value = 0.013.
HKSJ pooled result [95% CI]: HR = 0.86 [0.77, 0.96]; t = −3.19; P–value = 0.011 (df = 9).

HR: Hazard Ratio for donor versus no-donor; ln: natural logarithm; DL: DerSimonian & Laird meta-analysis method. HKSJ: Hartung-Knapp-Sidik-Jonkman meta-analysis method. CI: Confidence Interval, df: degrees of freedom, ×: multiplication sign. The pooled effect y and the weights w_i originate from the DL random-effects analysis on log scale.