Visual Representations of Meta-Analyses of Multiple Outcomes: Extensions to Forest Plots, Funnel Plots, and Caterpillar Plots

Meta-analytic datasets can be large, especially when in primary studies multiple effect sizes are reported. The visualization of meta-analytic data is therefore useful to summarize data and understand information reported in primary studies. The gold standard figures in meta-analysis are forest and...

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Main Authors: Belén Fernández-Castilla, Lies Declercq, Laleh Jamshidi, Susan Natasha Beretvas, Patrick Onghena, Wim Van den Noortgate
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: PsychOpen 2020-12-01
Series:Methodology
Subjects:
Online Access:https://meth.psychopen.eu/index.php/meth/article/view/4013
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spelling doaj-80d4984b1f5f45d9ba397dbfee8cba122021-07-13T15:25:49ZengPsychOpenMethodology1614-22412020-12-0116429931510.5964/meth.4013meth.4013Visual Representations of Meta-Analyses of Multiple Outcomes: Extensions to Forest Plots, Funnel Plots, and Caterpillar PlotsBelén Fernández-Castilla0Lies Declercq1Laleh Jamshidi2Susan Natasha Beretvas3Patrick Onghena4Wim Van den Noortgate5Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven (University of Leuven), Leuven, BelgiumFaculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven (University of Leuven), Leuven, BelgiumFaculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven (University of Leuven), Leuven, BelgiumUniversity of Texas at Austin, Austin, USAFaculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven (University of Leuven), Leuven, BelgiumFaculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven (University of Leuven), Leuven, BelgiumMeta-analytic datasets can be large, especially when in primary studies multiple effect sizes are reported. The visualization of meta-analytic data is therefore useful to summarize data and understand information reported in primary studies. The gold standard figures in meta-analysis are forest and funnel plots. However, none of these plots can yet account for the existence of multiple effect sizes within primary studies. This manuscript describes extensions to the funnel plot, forest plot and caterpillar plot to adapt them to three-level meta-analyses. For forest plots, we propose to plot the study-specific effects and their precision, and to add additional confidence intervals that reflect the sampling variance of individual effect sizes. For caterpillar plots and funnel plots, we recommend to plot individual effect sizes and averaged study-effect sizes in two separate graphs. For the funnel plot, plotting separate graphs might improve the detection of both publication bias and/or selective outcome reporting bias.https://meth.psychopen.eu/index.php/meth/article/view/4013meta-analysisgraphical displayforest plotfunnel plot(3-level) multilevel
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Belén Fernández-Castilla
Lies Declercq
Laleh Jamshidi
Susan Natasha Beretvas
Patrick Onghena
Wim Van den Noortgate
spellingShingle Belén Fernández-Castilla
Lies Declercq
Laleh Jamshidi
Susan Natasha Beretvas
Patrick Onghena
Wim Van den Noortgate
Visual Representations of Meta-Analyses of Multiple Outcomes: Extensions to Forest Plots, Funnel Plots, and Caterpillar Plots
Methodology
meta-analysis
graphical display
forest plot
funnel plot
(3-level) multilevel
author_facet Belén Fernández-Castilla
Lies Declercq
Laleh Jamshidi
Susan Natasha Beretvas
Patrick Onghena
Wim Van den Noortgate
author_sort Belén Fernández-Castilla
title Visual Representations of Meta-Analyses of Multiple Outcomes: Extensions to Forest Plots, Funnel Plots, and Caterpillar Plots
title_short Visual Representations of Meta-Analyses of Multiple Outcomes: Extensions to Forest Plots, Funnel Plots, and Caterpillar Plots
title_full Visual Representations of Meta-Analyses of Multiple Outcomes: Extensions to Forest Plots, Funnel Plots, and Caterpillar Plots
title_fullStr Visual Representations of Meta-Analyses of Multiple Outcomes: Extensions to Forest Plots, Funnel Plots, and Caterpillar Plots
title_full_unstemmed Visual Representations of Meta-Analyses of Multiple Outcomes: Extensions to Forest Plots, Funnel Plots, and Caterpillar Plots
title_sort visual representations of meta-analyses of multiple outcomes: extensions to forest plots, funnel plots, and caterpillar plots
publisher PsychOpen
series Methodology
issn 1614-2241
publishDate 2020-12-01
description Meta-analytic datasets can be large, especially when in primary studies multiple effect sizes are reported. The visualization of meta-analytic data is therefore useful to summarize data and understand information reported in primary studies. The gold standard figures in meta-analysis are forest and funnel plots. However, none of these plots can yet account for the existence of multiple effect sizes within primary studies. This manuscript describes extensions to the funnel plot, forest plot and caterpillar plot to adapt them to three-level meta-analyses. For forest plots, we propose to plot the study-specific effects and their precision, and to add additional confidence intervals that reflect the sampling variance of individual effect sizes. For caterpillar plots and funnel plots, we recommend to plot individual effect sizes and averaged study-effect sizes in two separate graphs. For the funnel plot, plotting separate graphs might improve the detection of both publication bias and/or selective outcome reporting bias.
topic meta-analysis
graphical display
forest plot
funnel plot
(3-level) multilevel
url https://meth.psychopen.eu/index.php/meth/article/view/4013
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