Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice · 2000 · 47 citations · 15 references
Public HealthBiostatisticsPharmacologyClinical PharmacologyEpilepsyMeta-analysisClinical Trial Data CollectionClinical TrialsIndividual Participant Data Meta-analysisMissing Data HandlingMissing Data MethodsAntiepileptic Clinical TrialsMeta-analysis Of Treatment EffectsMissing Covariate DataMissing Data In Meta-analysisSample Size CalculationTime-to-event MetricsTreatment Outcomes In EpilepsyTrial-level Meta-analysis
Meta-analysis may be based on either aggregate data or individual patient data (IPD). Three reasons why IPD are desirable for the meta-analysis of anti-epileptic drug (AED) monotherapy trials are: (1) to undertake a more complete analysis of time-to-event outcomes; (2) to investigate the interaction between AED and type of epilepsy; and (3) to undertake re-analysis of the trial to obtain results for all relevant outcomes. We demonstrate that IPD meta-analysis is possible in AED research. Problems arose from missing data at four levels: (1) unknown trials; (2) known trials but no IPD supplied; (3) known trials but missing outcome data for some individuals within trials; and (4) known trials but missing covariate data for some individuals within trials. Empirical evidence of the reliability of meta-analyses based on aggregate rather than individual patient data is still lacking. Examples of other benefits such projects may bring include improvements to the design of a new trial in the area, in terms of the sample size considerations, the definition of outcomes and data collection.
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