A HGLM framework for Meta-Analysis of Clinical Trials with Binary Outcomes

In a meta-analysis combining the results from different clinical trials, it is important to consider the possible heterogeneity in outcomes between trials. Such variations can be regarded as random effects. Thus, random-effect models such as HGLMs (hierarchical generalized linear models) are very useful. In this paper, we propose a HGLM framework for analyzing the binominal response data which may have variations in the odds-ratios between clinical trials. We also present the prediction intervals for random effects which are in practice useful to investigate the heterogeneity of the trial effects. The proposed method is illustrated with a real-data set on 22 trials about respiratory tract infections. We further demonstrate that an appropriate HGLM can be confirmed via model-selection criteria.