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).