Table 3.
Sensitivity analyses
| Analysis | All cause admission | Mortality | |||||
| No of patients (no of trials) | RR (95% CI) | p Value | No of patients (no of trials) | RR (95% CI) | p Value | ||
| Random versus fixed effects | |||||||
| Random effects | 6569 (21) | 0.87 (0.79 to 0.95) | 0.002 | 7447 (27) | 0.79 (0.69 to 0.92) | 0.002 | |
| Fixed effects | 6569 (21) | 0.90 (0.85 to 0.95) | <0.001 | 7447 (27) | 0.85 (0.77 to 0.94) | 0.001 | |
| Removing outliers | |||||||
| Base case | 6569 (21) | 0.87 (0.79 to 0.95) | 0.002 | 7447 (27) | 0.79 (0.69 to 0.92) | 0.002 | |
| Removing extreme trials | 5831 (19) | 0.89 (0.83 to 0.94) | <0.001 | 7213 (26) | 0.83 (0.73 to 0.95) | 0.006 | |
| Quality component | |||||||
| 1. | Concealed allocation | 2238 (10) | 0.92 (0.80 to 1.05) | 0.22 | 3161 (11) | 0.87 (0.74 to 1.01) | 0.07 |
| No clear concealment | 4331 (11) | 0.82 (0.73 to 0.95) | 0.01 | 4286 (16) | 0.74 (0.58 to 0.94) | 0.01 | |
| 2. | ITT | 5363 (14) | 0.88 (0.79 to 0.99) | 0.03 | 5589 (17) | 0.76 (0.63 to 0.91) | 0.003 |
| Unclear if ITT used | 1206 (7) | 0.83 (0.73 to 0.94) | 0.002 | 1858 (10) | 0.86 (0.67 to 1.12) | 0.26 | |
| 3. | Data cross checked | 3859 (13) | 0.86 (0.75 to 0.99) | 0.03 | 2587 (13) | 0.86 (0.72 to 1.03) | 0.10 |
| No clear cross check | 2710 (8) | 0.89 (0.80 to 0.98) | 0.02 | 4860 (14) | 0.72 (0.69 to 0.92) | 0.007 | |
| Overall quality score | |||||||
| High score (>5 of 8) | 4577 (16) | 0.85 (0.75 to 0.95) | 0.005 | 4793 (20) | 0.82 (0.71 to 0.96) | 0.01 | |
| Low score (⩽5 of 8) | 1992 (5) | 0.94 (0.86 to 1.04) | 0.50 | 2654 (7) | 0.69 (0.45 to 1.05) | 0.08 | |
| Level of randomisation | |||||||
| Individual patient only | 4510 (18) | 0.84 (0.75 to 0.94) | 0.002 | 5388 (24) | 0.76 (0.64 to 0.90) | 0.002 | |
| Cluster trial | 2059 (3) | 0.97 (0.89 to 1.07) | 0.56 | 2059 (3) | 0.99 (0.83 to 1.18) | 0.92 | |
| Origin of data | |||||||
| Published article | 4315 (13) | 0.86 (0.75 to 0.98) | 0.02 | 4740 (21) | 0.83 (0.81 to 0.97) | 0.02 | |
| Data from author/abstract | 2254 (8) | 0.87 (0.79 to 0.95) | 0.003 | 2707 (6) | 0.70 (0.48 to 1.02) | 0.06 | |
| Intensity | |||||||
| High | 3593 (11) | 0.85 (0.75 to 0.97) | 0.02 | 4550 (15) | 0.76 (0.63 to 0.92) | 0.005 | |
| Low | 2976 (10) | 0.88 (0.76 to 1.01) | 0.07 | 2897 (12) | 0.84 (0.66 to 1.06) | 0.15 | |
| Target of intervention | |||||||
| High risk CHF patient | 1354 (7) | 0.82 (0.69 to 0.96) | 0.02 | 1586 (7) | 0.81 (0.58 to 1.15) | 0.25 | |
| Any CHF patient | 4543 (11) | 0.86 (0.78 to 0.96) | 0.007 | 5693 (18) | 0.79 (0.67 to 0.94) | 0.008 | |
| Variety of diagnoses | 672 (3) | 1.02 (0.72 to 1.44) | 0.91 | 168 (2) | 0.73 (0.36 to 1.51) | 0.40 | |
CHF, congestive heart failure; CI, confidence interval; ITT, intention to treat; RR, relative risk.