A systematic appraisal of allegiance effect in randomized controlled trials of psychotherapy

Table 3 Summary RORs in sensitivity analysis for specific characteristics

Characteristic	N	Summary ROR (95 % CI) fixed effects	P	Summary ROR (95 % CI) random effects	P	I ² (%)
Authorship list
First/last position	30	1.26 (1.07–1.47)	0.005	1.25 (1.00–1.56)	0.047	35
Other position	20	1.53 (1.22–1.92)	2.5 × 10⁻⁴	1.58 (1.00–2.47)	0.048	64
Continuum level of allegiance
Developed and supervised or trained (5)	6	2.22 (1.56–3.17)	1.2 × 10⁻⁵	2.39 (1.15–4.99)	0.020	65
Developed the therapy (4)	30	1.36 (1.18–1.57)	3.4 × 10⁻⁵	1.36 (1.07–1.72)	0.011	49
Other (1–3)	8	0.60 (0.38–0.96)	0.035	0.64 (0.31–1.30)	0.217	45
Bona fide treatment
Yes	14	0.99 (0.79–1.24)	0.940	0.94 (0.68–1.29)	0.709	42
No	10	1.68 (1.27–2.22)	2.8 × 10⁻⁴	2.51 (1.01–6.23)	0.048	88
Unclear	4	1.97 (0.57–6.76)	0.280	1.06 (0.97–1.16)	0.173	0
Quality of studies
High quality	15	1.28 (1.04–1.50)	0.021	1.54 (0.87–2.74)	0.141	78
Moderate quality	22	1.46 (1.12–1.89)	0.005	1.20 (0.73–1.99)	0.467	66
Low quality	7	0.41 (0.22–0.77)	0.041	0.53 (0.18–1.58)	0.257	54
Treatment integrity assessment
Yes	9	1.05 (0.79–1.39)	0.763	0.99 (0.62–1.56)	0.952	53
No	28	1.29 (1.07–1.55)	0.007	1.54 (1.01–2.35)	0.047	74
Quality of psychotherapy
High quality (A)	6	1.01 (0.66–1.55)	0.973	1.48 (0.91–2.42)	0.120	57
Unclear quality (B)	6	1.38 (0.84–2.28)	0.205	1.28 (0.49–3.30)	0.612	53
Low quality (C)	27	1.28 (1.05–1.56)	0.014	1.61 (1.00–2.59)	0.049	76

N number of studies that the comparison under study exists, ROR relative odds ratio

ISSN: 1744-859X