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Friday, October 19
Fri, Oct 19, 2:30 PM - 3:45 PM
Caprice 3-4
Speed Session 4

Exact Meta-Analysis Using a Permutation-Based Approach (304891)

*Brinley Zabriskie, Utah State University 
Chris Corcoran, Utah State University 
Pralay Senchaudhuri, Cytel Software Corporation 

Keywords: small samples, sparse data, rare events, heterogeneity, correlated data, network algorithm

The increasingly widespread use of meta-analysis has led to growing interest in meta-analytic methods for rare events and sparse data - conventional approaches tend to perform very poorly in such settings. Recent work in this area has provided options for sparse data, but these are still often hampered when heterogeneity across the available studies differs according to the exposure or treatment group. We propose a permutation-based approach that accommodates this common contingency, providing more reliable statistical tests when such patterns of heterogeneity are observed. Our approach also can be used as a basis for computing exact confidence intervals when estimating effect size.