Table 1.

Summary of the simulation scenarios

Number of studies
Balanced direct comparisons	KAB = KAC = KBC = 1, …, 7
Imbalanced direct comparisons	KAB = 1, KAC = 4, KBC = 7 (and KAB = 1, KAC = 4, KBC = 3 for the typical loop)
Treatment effects
Comparison AB	ORAB = 0.73
Comparison AC	ORAC = 1
Comparison BC	ORBC = exp{log(ORAC) - log(ORAB) + IFABC}
Inconsistency in the network
Inconsistency Factor	IFABC = {0, 0.3, 0.45, 0.6, 1}
Heterogeneity in the network
Subjective outcome	τ2 ~ LN(-2.13, 1.582)
All-cause mortality outcome	τ2 ~ LN(-4.06, 1.452)
Trial arm size
Small	n ~ U(20, 50)
Moderate	n ~ U(50, 150)
Large	n ~ U(150, 300) (and n ~ U(120, 160) for the typical loop)
Frequency of events
Average risk for frequent events
Average risk for rare events
Approaches to estimate the variances of the direct pairwise summary effects
Inverse variance method
Knapp-Hartung method