Antibiotics for eradicating meningococcal carriages: Network meta-analysis and investigation of evidence inconsistency

Table 4 Results of covariate effects in network meta-analysis: Regression coefficient and between study variation

Covariate	Regression coefficient, β (95%CI)	Between-study variation (τ)
Persistent carrier (1) vs any carriers (0)	-2.904 (-4.695 to -1.186)	0.434
Household (1) vs other (0)	-6.178 (-16.79 to -0.069)	0.975
Cluster/quasi RCT (1) vs RCT (0)	0.405 (-2.235 to 2.881)	1.082
Sequence generation inadequate (1) vs adequate (0)	0.461 (-1.301 to 2.014)	1.025
Open design (1) vs blinded (0)	0.055 (-1.877 to 1.662)	1.087

β > 0 indicating that treatment effect is smaller when the covariate exists. RCT: Randomized controlled trial.