Network meta-analysis (NMA) is gaining popularity in evidence synthesis and network meta-regression allows us to incorporate potentially important covariates into network meta-analysis. In this article, we propose a Bayesian network meta-regression hierarchical model and assume a general multivariate t distribution for the random treatment effects. The multivariate t distribution is desired for heavy-tailed random effects and converges to the multivariate normal distribution when the degrees of freedom go to infinity. Moreover, in NMA, some treatments are compared only in a single study. To overcome such sparsity, we propose a log-linear regression model for the variances of the random effects and incorporate aggregate covariates into modeling the variance components. We develop a Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling algorithm to sample from the posterior distribution via the collapsed Gibbs technique. We further use the deviance information criterion and the logarithm of the pseudo-marginal likelihood for model comparison. A simulation study is conducted and a detailed analysis from our motivating case study is carried out to further demonstrate the proposed methodology.
Objectives: To compare stone-free rates (SFRs), operative times, and transfusion rates of various endoscopic techniques for kidney stone management.
Methods: A systematic review was performed, identifying studies comparing the different endoscopic techniques in patients with renal stones. Studies were grouped by location and size of stones (lower pole, 1-2 cm, and >2 cm).
Background: Diarrhoeal diseases claim more than 1 million lives annually and are a leading cause of death in children younger than 5 years. Comprehensive global estimates of the diarrhoeal disease burden for specific age groups of children younger than 5 years are scarce, and the burden in children older than 5 years and in adults is also understudied. We used results from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2021 to assess the burden of, and trends in, diarrhoeal diseases overall and attributable to 13 pathogens, as well as the contributions of associated risk factors, in children and adults in 204 countries and territories from 1990 to 2021.
Introduction: Systemic sclerosis (SSc), a chronic autoimmune condition, is characterized by microvascular dysfunction, ineffective angiogenesis, and fibrosis. The identification of robust biomarkers reflecting these processes may assist in clinical management and lead to the discovery of new therapies. We sought to address this issue by conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies investigating one such biomarker, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), in SSc patients and healthy controls and in SSc patients with localized or diffuse disease, different video capillaroscopy patterns (early, active, or late), and presence or absence of complications.
The World Health Assembly set six global nutrition targets (GNTs) in 2012 to improve maternal and child health, but there has been no comprehensive report detailing progress from 2012 to 2021.
A study evaluated the prevalence and impact of these nutrition targets across 204 countries using data from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 and projected future trends up to 2050.
By 2021, only a few countries met some GNTs; most showed increased child overweight and notable decreases in female anaemia, highlighting a connection between societal development status and nutritional challenges.
Introduction: Effective linkage to prevention and care is a crucial step following HIV testing services. This systematic review aimed to determine the proportion of individuals linked to prevention and care after HIV self-testing (HIVST) and describe factors associated with linkage.
Methods: Following PRISMA guidelines, a comprehensive search across eight databases (2010-October 2023) identified studies on linkage to care after HIVST, defined as receiving a confirmatory test or initiating antiretroviral therapy (ART) if the self-test was reactive, and/or pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) if the self-test was non-reactive.
