IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ibn/ijspjl/v11y2022i2p61.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Reliability of a Meta-analysis of Air Quality−Asthma Cohort Studies

Author

Listed:
  • S. Stanley Young
  • Kai-Chieh Cheng
  • Jin Hua Chen
  • Shu-Chuan Chen
  • Warren B. Kindzierski

Abstract

What may be a contributing cause of the replication problem in science – multiple testing bias – was examined in this study. Independent analysis was performed on a meta-analysis of cohort studies associating ambient exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) with development of asthma. Statistical tests used in 19 base papers from the meta-analysis were counted. Test statistics and confidence intervals from the base papers used for meta-analysis were converted to p-values. A combined p-value plot for NO2 and PM2.5 was constructed to evaluate the effect heterogeneity of the p-values. Large numbers of statistical tests were estimated in the 19 base papers – median 13,824 (interquartile range 1,536−221,184). Given these numbers, there is little assurance that test statistics used from the base papers for meta-analysis are unbiased. The p-value plot of test statistics showed a two-component mixture. The shape of the p-value plot for NO2 suggests the use of questionable research practices related to small p-values in some of the cohort studies. All p-values for PM2.5 fall on a 45-degree line in the p-value plot indicating randomness. The claim that ambient exposure to NO2 and PM2.5 is associated with development of asthma is not supported by our analysis.

Suggested Citation

  • S. Stanley Young & Kai-Chieh Cheng & Jin Hua Chen & Shu-Chuan Chen & Warren B. Kindzierski, 2022. "Reliability of a Meta-analysis of Air Quality−Asthma Cohort Studies," International Journal of Statistics and Probability, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 11(2), pages 1-61, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:ibn:ijspjl:v:11:y:2022:i:2:p:61
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ijsp/article/download/0/0/46815/50049
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ijsp/article/download/0/0/46815/50048
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ijsp/article/download/0/0/46815/50047
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ijsp/article/download/0/0/46815/50046
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ijsp/article/view/0/46815
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ibn:ijspjl:v:11:y:2022:i:2:p:61. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Canadian Center of Science and Education (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cepflch.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.