Testing for Publication Bias in Diagnostic Meta-Analysis: A Simulation Study

Abstract: The present study investigates the performance of several statistical tests to detect publication bias in diagnostic meta-analysis by means of simulation. While bivariate models should be used to pool data from primary studies in diagnostic meta-analysis, univariate measures of diagnostic accuracy are preferable for the purpose of detecting publication bias. In contrast to earlier research, which focused solely on the diagnostic odds ratio or its logarithm ($\ln\omega$), the tests are combined with four different univariate measures of diagnostic accuracy. For each combination of test and univariate measure, both type I error rate and statistical power are examined under diverse conditions. The results indicate that tests based on linear regression or rank correlation cannot be recommended in diagnostic meta-analysis, because type I error rates are either inflated or power is too low, irrespective of the applied univariate measure. In contrast, the combination of trim and fill and $\ln\omega$ has non-inflated or only slightly inflated type I error rates and medium to high power, even under extreme circumstances (at least when the number of studies per meta-analysis is large enough). Therefore, we recommend the application of trim and fill combined with $\ln\omega$ to detect funnel plot asymmetry in diagnostic meta-analysis. Please cite this paper as published in Statistics in Medicine (https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.6177).