Application contour-enhanced funnel plot using metafor package in R
Wei Xue · Chinese Journal of Evidence-Based Cardiovascular Medicine · 2015
Objective To introduce the function of the contour-enhanced funnel plot and how to implement it using metafor package in R. Methods We introduced the implementation method based on the funnel() function using a example. Then we compared the results of contour-enhanced funnel plot and traditional funnel plot. ResultsThe metafor package can finish the common contour-enhanced funnel plot and combine with trim and fill method. Relative to traditional funnel plot, the contour-enhanced funnel plot is more sensitivity and it can also distinguish the statistic distributions of included studies. Conclusions The contour-enhanced funnel plot can further to detect the symmetry or asymmetry is true and help to investigate whether the asymmetry is caused by publication bias.