Table 3.
Sensitivity analysis results of meta-analysis of the FACT-G scale scores
| Physical well-being | Functional well-being | Emotional well-being | Social well-being | Total FACT-G | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of contrasts | X | L | X | L | X | L | X | L | X | L |
| Trivial | 28 | 14 | 32 | 16 | 51 | 15 | 88 | 39 | 24 | 10 |
| Small | 56 | 16 | 61 | 20 | 46 | 9 | 37 | 21 | 49 | 18 |
| Medium | 41 | 14 | 37 | 13 | 6 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 31 | 7 |
| Large | 13 | 1 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Cross-sectional (X) | IWMD | 95% CI | IWMD | 95% CI | IWMD | 95% CI | IWMD | 95% CI | IWMD | 95% CI |
| Trivial | 0.04 | −2.4, 2.5 | 0.7 | −2.1, 3.5 | −0.06 | −1.5, 1.3 | 0.2 | −1.2, 1.7 | −1 | −9, 8 |
| Small | 2.0 | 0.3, 3.7 | 2.2 | 0.3, 4.1 | 1.1 | −0.4, 2.6 | 0.9 | −1.2, 3.0 | 7 | 1, 12 |
| Medium | 4.5 | 2.5, 6.5 | 4.6 | 2.1, 7.1 | 1.8 | −2.7, 6.3 | 0.9 | −5.0, 6.7 | 15 | 8, 22 |
| Large | 8.7 | 5.2, 12 | 8.8 | 4.3, 13 | – | – | – | – | 22 | −4, 48 |
| Longitudinal (L) | IWMD | 95% CI | IWMD | 95% CI | IWMD | 95% CI | IWMD | 95% CI | IWMD | 95% CI |
| Trivial | 0.02 | −1.9, 2.0 | −0.2 | −2.2, 1.9 | 0.2 | −1.2, 1.7 | −0.03 | −1.1, 1.1 | −0.6 | −7.5, 6.2 |
| Small | 0.9 | −0.7, 2.5 | 0.8 | −1.4, 3.0 | 1.7 | −0.7, 4.1 | 0.4 | −1.3, 2.0 | 2.0 | −3.7, 7.7 |
| Medium | 2.4 | 0.3, 4.5 | 1.2 | −1.3, 3.7 | 2.1 | −9.2, 13.5 | 0.06 | −8.5, 8.6 | 1.1 | −7.7, 9.8 |
| Large | 8.2 | −7.5, 24 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
Note: The scores are from the subset of cross-sectional (X, n = 617/1118, 55%) contrasts and longitudinal (L, n = 216/436, 50%) contrasts in which at least 2 experts were perfectly concordant and up to 1 was discordant by at most 1 point: number of contrasts and IWMDs, with 95% CIs for the 5 FACT-G scales and the 4 size classes.
Abbreviations: FACT-G, Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General; IWMDs, inverse-variance weighted mean differences; CIs, confidence intervals.