Table 2 Variables analyzed in the sensitivity analyses, used more than 5 times in the analyzed sample (N = 678)
Variables | N (%) |
|---|---|
Various aspects of quality/risk of bias | 90 (13) |
Statistics and effect sizes (heterogeneity, effect sizes, imprecise effect estimates, intention-to-treat analysis, different methods for effect size calculations, different results, correlation coefficients, meta-regression, imputation of data, different analysis methods, event rate, standard deviation calculated from standard error) | 58 (8.6) |
Intervention variations | 52 (7.7) |
Impact of each individual study (sequential exclusion of single studies) | 31 (4.6) |
Patients’ characteristics (such as smoking, gender, weight) | 24 (3.5) |
Type of outcomes (such as different pain scales) | 23 (3.4) |
Type of included studies (crossover studies, randomized controlled trials, non-randomized studies, non-blinded studies, data from retracted studies, mixed data, peer-reviewed manuscripts) | 13 (1.9) |
Trial size | 7 (1.0) |
Publication bias | 6 (0.9) |
Comparator | 6 (0.9) |
Covariates | 5 (0.7) |
Type of funding | 5 (0.7) |