Speaker: Joo Ann Lee, York University
Department of Psychology

Title: An Introduction to Meta-analytic Techniques for Studies with Sparse Binary Outcomes

Abstract: The odds ratio is the data for a traditional meta-analysis of binary outcomes. When combining sparse binary outcomes, problems often arise with the occurrence of zero events. The occurrence of zero events hampers the calculation of odds ratio and its variance as they become undefined. A variety of techniques, most of which are based on fixed effect model, have been proposed to overcome this problem. I will introduce some of these techniques using an example from suicide risk research followed by a preliminary simulation study highlighting their statistical properties. I will conclude with a discussion of the issues and possible future directions.