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. 2014 Mar 11;348:g1741. doi: 10.1136/bmj.g1741

Table 1.

 General characteristics of 121 reports of network meta-analyses

Item and subcategory No (%) of reports
Journal type:
 General journal 55 (45)
 Specialty journal 66 (55)
Funding source:
 Private (at least one private source) 48 (40)
 Public 55 (45)
 Unclear 18 (15)
Type of intervention assessed:
 Pharmacological intervention 100 (83)
 Non-pharmacological intervention 11 (9)
 Both (pharmacological and non-pharmacological intervention) 10 (8)
Bayesian statistical approach: 91 (75)
 Basic parameter:
  Non-informative prior 51/91 (56)
  Informative prior 0 (0)
  Not reported 40/91 (44)
 Between trial variance:
  Non-informative prior 30/91 (33)
  Informative prior 4/91 (4)
  Not reported 57/91 (63)
Methods to assess non-transitivity: 43 (36)
 Comparing patients’ or trials’ characteristics (across comparisons) 40/43 (93)
 Investigating potential intervention effect modifying covariates 3/43 (7)
Type of outcomes:
 Binary 78 (64)
 Continuous 28 (23)
 Time to event: 15 (12)
No of outcomes assessed per network* 2 (1-3)
No of printed pages* 11 (9-15)
Supplement or appendix published 70 (58)
No of tables per network* 5 (3-6)
No of figures per network* 3 (2-5)

*Data are medians (interquartile range).