Table 1 Simulation parameter setup

Incidence rate of the control group (pc)

0.01

Number of patients in control group (n₂)

mean (log) =3.3537, sd (log) =0.9992

Sample size ratio (ratio)

Uniform (0.84, 2.04)

Number of patients in experimental group (n₁)

n₁ = exp. (log n₂)*ratio

Effect sizes (OR)

1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Between-study variance (τ²)

τ=(0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1.0)

Number of studies included in each meta-analysis (m)

Uniform (4, 10)