Clinical heterogeneity in random-effect meta-analysis: Between-study boundary estimate problem.
Yoneoka Daisuke, Henmi Masayuki·Statistics in medicine
Random-effect meta-analysis is commonly applied to estimate overall effects with unexplained heterogeneity across studies. However, standard methods, including (restricted) maximum likelihood (ML or REML), frequently produce (near) zero estimates for between-study variance parameters. Consequently, these methods are re…