Table 1.
Epidemiological and descriptive characteristics of 121 reports of network meta-analyses
| Item and subcategory | No (%) of reports |
|---|---|
| Journal type | |
| General journal | 55 (45) |
| With high impact factor | 29 (53) |
| Specialty journal | 66 (55) |
| With high impact factor | 27 (41) |
| Location of corresponding author | |
| Europe | 69 (57) |
| North America | 38 (31) |
| Asia | 8 (7) |
| South America | 3 (2) |
| Oceania | 3 (2) |
| Funding source | |
| Private | 41 (34) |
| Public | 40 (33) |
| None | 15 (12) |
| Both private and public | 7 (6) |
| Unclear | 18 (15) |
| Medical area | |
| Cardiology | 27 (22) |
| Rheumatology | 16 (13) |
| Endocrinology | 12 (10) |
| Oncology | 10 (8) |
| Infectious disease | 9 (7) |
| Psychiatry/psychology | 8 (7) |
| Neurology | 8 (7) |
| Respiratology | 6 (5) |
| Ophthalmology | 5 (4) |
| Surgery | 5 (4) |
| Other (≤3 reviews per medical area; 11 medical areas) | 15 (12) |
| Type of intervention assessed | |
| Pharmacological intervention | 100 (83) |
| Different class * | 72 (60) |
| Same class * | 35 (29) |
| Any dose of same drug * | 12 (10) |
| Non-pharmacological intervention | 11 (9) |
| Devices * | 10 (8) |
| Surgery or procedure * | 7 (6) |
| Therapeutic strategy or education | 5 (4) |
| Both (pharmacological and non-pharmacological intervention) | 10 (8) |
| Type of network | |
| No of interventions assessed per network† | 7 (5-9) |
| No of comparisons conducted by at least one randomised controlled trial (per network meta-analysis)† | 10 (6-15) |
| No of network meta-analyses with at least one closed loop | 103 (85) |
| No of randomised controlled trials included in network meta-analysis (per network meta-analysis)† | 22 (15-40) |
Data are no (%) of reports unless stated otherwise.
*Multiple answers were possible, so the total does not equal 100%.
†Data are median (interquartile range).