Hello everyone
My name is Jesús López Alcalde. I'm a systematic reviewer working at
the Lain Entralgo´s Agency (Madrid, Spain), a Cochrane Collaborating Centre.
My role is facilitating and promoting Cochrane reviews in Madrid by helping
with methodological issues and by coordinating the review authors.
I am working in the protocol of a Cochrane systematic review titled: "Short
course versus long course therapy of the same antibiotic for
community-acquired pneumonia in adolescent and adult outpatients". This
review will consider as eligible superiority, non-inferiority and
equivalence randomised clinical trials.
Does anyone has experience with systematic reviews including non-inferiority
or equivalence trials?
I think this is a relevant topic (non-inferiority trials have become very
popular) but it is usually not considered in systematic reviews. On the
other hand, there is scarce published literature on the methodology employed
in such meta-analyses.
My specific questions are:
1.- Should I specify in the review protocol a non-inferiority margin?
2.- What is the best analysis approach in the primary studies
('intention-to-treat' or 'per-protocol')?
3.- How to deal with the heterogeneity in the primary studies (for example,
some of them being superiority trials, other non-inferiority or equivalence
trials)?
Thank you very much
Jesús
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Jesús López Alcalde
Grupo Cochrane Iberoamericano de Seguridad del Paciente
Centro Cochrane Iberoamericano (CCIb)
Telf. (0034) 913 089 400 (Ext. 657)
Telf. móvil: (0034) 633 217 736
Jesús López Alcalde
Systematic Reviews on Patient Safety Iberoamerican Group
Iberoamerican Cochrane Centre
Phone (0034) 913 089 400 (Ext. 657)
Cel.: (0034) 633 217 736
