Adjusted Likelihoods For Synthesizing Empirical Evidence
from Studies That Differ in Quality and Design:
Effects of Environmental Tobacco Smoke

Robert L. Wolpert & Kerrie Mengersen
Duke University & University of Newcastle

Initial: August 2002
Revised: April 2004

Methods are introduced and illustrated for synthesizing evidence from case-control and cohort studies and controlled trials, accounting for differences among the studies in their design, length of follow-up, and quality. The methods, based on hierarchical but nonexchangeable Bayesian models, are illustrated in a synthesis of disparate information about the health effects of passive exposure to environmental tobacco smoke.

Key Words: Adjustment, environmental tobacco smoke, meta-analysis, nonexchangeable Bayesian hierarchical model, quality of studies.

Preprint is available in postscript (641kb) and pdf (385kb) formats; final version is available in pdf (549kb). Statistical Science 19(3), August 2004, 450-471. 

@Article{wolp:meng:2004,
      Author = "Robert L. Wolpert and Kerrie L. Mengersen",
       Title = "Adjusted Likelihoods for Synthesizing Empirical Evidence
                from Studies That Differ in Quality and Design: Effects
                of Environmental Tobacco Smoke",
     Journal = "Statistical Science",
        Year = 2004,
       Month = aug,
      Volume = 19,
      Number = 3,
       Pages = "450--471",
}