Approximate confidence intervals for
moment-based estimators of the
between-study variance in random
effects meta-analysis

Jackson, D; Bowden, J; Baker, RD

Abstract

Moment-based estimators of the between-study variance are very popular when performing random effects
meta-analyses. This type of estimation has many advantages including computational and conceptual
simplicity. Furthermore, by using these estimators in large samples, valid meta-analyses can be performed
without the assumption that the treatment effects follow a normal distribution. Recently proposed
moment-based confidence intervals for the between-study variance are exact under the randomeffectsmodel
but are quite elaborate. Here, we present a much simpler method for calculating approximate confidence
intervals of this type. This method uses variance-stabilising transformations as its basis and can be used for
a very wide variety of moment-based estimators in both the random effects meta-analysis and metaregression
models.

Citation

effects meta-analysis. Research Synthesis Methods, 6(4), 372-382. https://doi.org/10.1002/jrsm.1162

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 1, 2015
• Publication Date: Aug 19, 2015
• Deposit Date: Sep 1, 2015
• Journal: Research Synthesis Methods
• Print ISSN: 1759-2879
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 6
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 372-382
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/jrsm.1162
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jrsm.1162
• Related Public URLs: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1759-2887