metaumbrella: the first comprehensive suite to perform data analysis in umbrella reviews with stratification of the evidence

TY - JOUR

T1 - metaumbrella

T2 - the first comprehensive suite to perform data analysis in umbrella reviews with stratification of the evidence

AU - Gosling, Corentin J.

AU - Solanes, Aleix

AU - Fusar-Poli, Paolo

AU - Radua, Joaquim

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2023. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. Published by BMJ.

PY - 2023/2/15

Y1 - 2023/2/15

N2 - OBJECTIVE: Umbrella reviews are a new form of literature review that summarises the strength and/or quality of the evidence from all systematic reviews and meta-analyses conducted on a broad topic. This type of review thus provides an exhaustive examination of a vast body of information, providing the highest synthesis of knowledge. A critical strength of umbrella reviews is recalculating the meta-analytic estimates within a uniform framework to allow a consistent evidence stratification. To our best knowledge, there is no comprehensive package or software to conduct umbrella reviews. METHODS: The R package metaumbrella accomplishes this aim by building on three core functions that (1) automatically perform all required calculations in an umbrella review (including but not limited to pairwise meta-analyses), (2) stratify evidence according to various classification criteria and (3) generate a visual representation of the results. In addition, this package allows flexible inputs for each review or meta-analysis analysed (eg, means plus SD, or effect size estimate and CI) and customisation (eg, stratification criteria following Ioannidis, algorithmic GRADE or personalised classification). RESULTS: The R package metaumbrella thus provides the first comprehensive range of facilities to perform umbrella reviews with stratification of the evidence. CONCLUSION: To facilitate the use of this package, even for researchers unfamiliar with R, we also provide a JAMOVI module and an open-access, browser-based graphical interface that allow use of the core functions of the package with a few mouse clicks.

AB - OBJECTIVE: Umbrella reviews are a new form of literature review that summarises the strength and/or quality of the evidence from all systematic reviews and meta-analyses conducted on a broad topic. This type of review thus provides an exhaustive examination of a vast body of information, providing the highest synthesis of knowledge. A critical strength of umbrella reviews is recalculating the meta-analytic estimates within a uniform framework to allow a consistent evidence stratification. To our best knowledge, there is no comprehensive package or software to conduct umbrella reviews. METHODS: The R package metaumbrella accomplishes this aim by building on three core functions that (1) automatically perform all required calculations in an umbrella review (including but not limited to pairwise meta-analyses), (2) stratify evidence according to various classification criteria and (3) generate a visual representation of the results. In addition, this package allows flexible inputs for each review or meta-analysis analysed (eg, means plus SD, or effect size estimate and CI) and customisation (eg, stratification criteria following Ioannidis, algorithmic GRADE or personalised classification). RESULTS: The R package metaumbrella thus provides the first comprehensive range of facilities to perform umbrella reviews with stratification of the evidence. CONCLUSION: To facilitate the use of this package, even for researchers unfamiliar with R, we also provide a JAMOVI module and an open-access, browser-based graphical interface that allow use of the core functions of the package with a few mouse clicks.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85154562277&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1136/bmjment-2022-300534

DO - 10.1136/bmjment-2022-300534

M3 - Article

SN - 1362-0347

VL - 26

JO - Evidence-Based Mental Health

JF - Evidence-Based Mental Health

IS - 1

ER -