Risk of Bias in Network Meta-Analysis (RoB NMA) tool.
other · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 40101916.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1136/bmj-2024-079839 and PMC identifier 11915405.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Systematic reviews with network meta-analysis (NMA) have potential biases in their conduct, analysis, and interpretation. If the results or conclusions of an NMA are integrated into policy or practice without any consideration of risks of bias, decisions could unknowingly be based on incorrect results, which could translate to poor patient outcomes. The RoB NMA (Risk of Bias in Network Meta-Analysis) tool answers a clearly defined need for a rigorously developed tool to assess risk of bias in NMAs of healthcare interventions. In this guidance article, we describe and provide a justification for the tool’s 17 items, their mechanism of bias, pertinent examples, and how to assess an NMA based on each response option.