Table 6 Properties of graphical tools available to summarise multiple outcomes in NMA
Properties | Methodological Frameworks | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rank-o-grams | Scatter plota | Rank heat plot | Radar plot | Spie charts | |
Summary type | |||||
 Numerical | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
  Does not depend on ordering of outcomes | – | – | – | ✗ | ✓ |
  Visual | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
  Single figure | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
Outcome measures | |||||
 Same units | |||||
  Absolute effects | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
  P (best) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
  P-score | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
  SUCRA | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
  All ranking probabilities | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
  Mean or median rank | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
 Different units | |||||
  Relative effects | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
Outcome preferences | |||||
 Straightforward ability to weight outcomes | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
Other considerations | |||||
 Can include > 2 outcomes | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
 Can accommodate missing outcomes | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |