Confidence interval for a subgroup difference in average Spearman correlations

Source: R/meta_comp.R

Computes the estimate, standard error, and confidence interval for a difference in average Spearman correlations for two mutually exclusive subgroups of studies. Each subgroup can have one or more studies.

meta.sub.spear(alpha, n, cor, group)

Arguments

alpha

alpha level for 1-alpha confidence

n

vector of sample sizes

cor

vector of estimated Spearman correlations

group

vector of group indicators:

  • 1 for set A

  • 2 for set B

  • 0 to ignore

Value

Returns a matrix with three rows:

  • Row 1 - estimate for Set A

  • Row 2 - estimate for Set B

  • Row 3 - estimate for difference, Set A - Set B

The columns are:

  • Estimate - estimated average correlation or difference

  • SE - standard error

  • LL - lower limit of the confidence interval

  • UL - upper limit of the confidence interval

References

Bonett DG (2008). “Meta-analytic interval estimation for bivariate correlations.” Psychological Methods, 13(3), 173--181. ISSN 1939-1463, doi:10.1037/a0012868 .

Examples

n <- c(55, 190, 65, 35)
cor <- c(.40, .65, .60, .45)
group <- c(1, 1, 2, 0)
meta.sub.spear(.05, n, cor, group)
#>                Estimate         SE         LL        UL
#> Set A:            0.525 0.06483629  0.3865928 0.6402793
#> Set B:            0.600 0.08829277  0.3992493 0.7458512
#> Set A - Set B:   -0.075 0.10954158 -0.2760700 0.1564955

# Should return:
#                Estimate         SE         LL        UL
# Set A:            0.525 0.06483629  0.3865928 0.6402793
# Set B:            0.600 0.08829277  0.3992493 0.7458512
# Set A - Set B:   -0.075 0.10954158 -0.2760700 0.1564955