Yilmaz Ayfer Ezgi
Department of Statistics, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey.
J Appl Stat. 2022 Jul 26;49(12):3141-3163. doi: 10.1080/02664763.2022.2104229. eCollection 2022.
The homogeneity tests of odds ratios are used in clinical trials and epidemiological investigations as a preliminary step of meta-analysis. In recent studies, the severity or mortality of COVID-19 in relation to demographic characteristics, comorbidities, and other conditions has been popularly discussed by interpreting odds ratios and using meta-analysis. According to the homogeneity test results, a common odds ratio summarizes all of the odds ratios in a series of studies. If the aim is not to find a common odds ratio, but to find which of the sub-characteristics/groups is different from the others or is under risk, then the implementation of a multiple comparison procedure is required. In this article, the focus is placed on the accuracy and reliability of the homogeneity of odds ratio tests for multiple comparisons when the odds ratios are heterogeneous at the omnibus level. Three recently proposed multiple comparison tests and four homogeneity of odds ratios tests with six adjustment methods to control the type-I error rate are considered. The reliability and accuracy of the methods are discussed in relation to COVID-19 severity data associated with diabetes on a country-by-country basis, and a simulation study to assess the powers and type-I error rates of the tests is conducted.
比值比的齐性检验在临床试验和流行病学调查中用作荟萃分析的初步步骤。在最近的研究中，通过解释比值比并使用荟萃分析，人们广泛讨论了2019冠状病毒病（COVID-19）与人口统计学特征、合并症及其他情况相关的严重程度或死亡率。根据齐性检验结果，一个共同的比值比概括了一系列研究中的所有比值比。如果目的不是找到一个共同的比值比，而是找出哪些亚特征/组与其他特征/组不同或处于风险之中，那么就需要实施多重比较程序。在本文中，当比值比在总体水平上存在异质性时，重点关注用于多重比较的比值比齐性检验的准确性和可靠性。考虑了最近提出的三种多重比较检验以及四种比值比齐性检验，并采用六种调整方法来控制I型错误率。根据各国与糖尿病相关的COVID-19严重程度数据，讨论了这些方法的可靠性和准确性，并进行了一项模拟研究以评估检验的功效和I型错误率。
