Per-study change in pain on a 0-10 cm visual analogue scale (VAS) for an
exercise-therapy arm versus a control arm, from the 20 randomized trials
pooled for the VAS outcome by Li, Bao, Wang and Zhao (2025). The change scores
are post minus baseline VAS, so a more negative value is a larger pain
reduction; analyze with direction = "lower" and a negative MID equal to the
required reduction (for example mid = -1.5 for a 1.5 cm responder threshold).
Format
A data frame with 20 rows and 7 columns:
- study
Study label (first author and year).
- change_e
Mean VAS change in the exercise (experimental) arm.
- sd_e
Standard deviation of the change in the exercise arm.
- n_e
Exercise-arm sample size.
- change_c
Mean VAS change in the control arm.
- sd_c
Standard deviation of the change in the control arm.
- n_c
Control-arm sample size.
Source
Li Z, Bao Z, Wang S, Zhao M (2025). Meta-analysis of the best exercise mode and dose study for improving spinal health. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 7, 1614906. doi:10.3389/fspor.2025.1614906 . Figure 3 (VAS pain). Reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0); the original authors and journal are credited as required.
Examples
# Proportion achieving at least a 1.5 cm VAS reduction (responder),
# exercise versus control, random-effects with HKSJ intervals.
responder_analysis(vas_pain, mid = -1.5, direction = "lower",
pooling = "random", ci_method = "hksj")
#> method pooling k p_e p_c rd rd_lb rd_ub
#> 1 individual random 20 NA NA 0.1749569 0.1064748 0.2434389
#> 2 weighted <NA> 20 0.8437480 0.6342443 0.2095037 0.1822245 0.2367828
#> 3 unweighted <NA> 20 0.7866327 0.4709021 0.3157305 NA NA
#> 4 median <NA> 20 0.8394395 0.3725571 0.4668824 NA NA
#> rr rr_lb rr_ub or or_lb or_ub nnt nnt_lb
#> 1 1.192139 1.080045 1.315868 3.222034 2.273167 4.566978 5.715694 4.107807
#> 2 1.330320 1.280565 1.382008 3.114021 2.633212 3.682624 4.773186 4.223280
#> 3 1.670480 NA NA 4.142374 NA NA 3.167258 NA
#> 4 2.253183 NA NA 8.805054 NA NA 2.141867 NA
#> nnt_ub var_rd tau2 i2 q q_p pi_lb
#> 1 9.391889 0.0008172005 0.006867891 0.5133031 39.03867 0.00436654 -0.009219726
#> 2 5.487736 0.0001937160 NA NA NA NA NA
#> 3 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
#> 4 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
#> pi_ub
#> 1 0.3591335
#> 2 NA
#> 3 NA
#> 4 NA