Table 7.

Performance of the stratified- and random-intercept^a models approaches in large data sets^b with greater (Top panel) and lesser (Bottom panel) heterogeneity of random effects^c

	Performance measuresd	Data generation
		Random-study and -treatment effect (Eq. 1)		Stratified-study effect (Eq. 2)
		Stratified-intercept	Random-intercept	Stratified-intercept	Random-intercept
(τ 20, τ 21) = (4, 4)e	AB ($\beta$ 1)	0.04 (0.02, 0.06)	0.03 (0.02, 0.06)	0.04 (0.02, 0.06)	0.04 (0.01, 0.06)
	RMSE ($\beta$ 1)	1.11 (0.55, 1.94)	1.07 (0.49, 1.84)	1.15 (0.58, 1.98)	1.11 (0.58, 1.87)
	Coverage ($\beta$ 1)	95.2	92.3	92.3	93.6
	AB (τ 21)	0.13 (0.06, 0.20)	0.12 (0.06, 0.20)	0.11 (0.05,0.18)	0.22 (0.20, 0.25)
	RMSE (τ 21)	4.05 (1.85,6.25)	3.87 (1.81, 6.21)	3.39 (1.57,5.56)	6.99 (6.20, 7.80)
	Coverage (τ 21)	53.7	78.9	89.8	1.0
	Convergence	63.8	98.3	99.7	89.9
(τ 20, τ 21) = (1, 1)	AB ($\beta$ 1)	0.02 (0.01, 0.03)	0.02 (0.01, 0.03)	0.02 (0.01, 0.03)	0.02 (0.01, 0.03)
	RMSE ($\beta$ 1)	0.63 (0.29, 1.07)	0.59 (0.29, 1.05)	0.63 (0.30, 1.05)	0.63 (0.30, 1.03)
	Coverage ($\beta$ 1)	91.8	91.9	93.1	93.3
	AB (τ 21)	0.03 (0.02, 0.06)	0.03 (0.02, 0.05)	0.03 (0.02, 0.05)	0.02 (0.01, 0.03)
	RMSE (τ 21)	1.06 (0.52, 1.74)	1.03 (0.49, 1.68)	0.98 (0.48, 1.69)	0.57 (0.27, 1.00)
	Coverage (τ 21)	86.3	82.5	87.9	76.5
	Convergence	95.3	96.5	99.2	88.8

^aResults are given for Penalized Quasi-likelihood (PQL) for the One-stage random-intercept and random treatment effect model (Model 3) and the stratified-intercept and random-slope model (Model 4)

^bLarge data sets had 15 studies and on average 3000 total subjects

^cBold text represent “best value” of performance

^dMedian (25th and 75th percentile) were reported for AB and RMSE, the proportion was reported for coverage and convergence

^e(τ ²₀, τ ²₁): (Random treatment-effect variance, random study-effect variance)