How to conduct an individual participant data meta-analysis in response to an emerging pathogen: lessons learned from Zika and COVID-19
Sharing, harmonizing, and analyzing participant-level data is of central importance in the rapid research response to emerging pathogens. Individual participant data meta-analyses (IPD-MAs), which synthesize participant-level data from related primary studies, have several advantages over pooling st...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article (Journal) |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
03 November 2025
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| In: |
Research synthesis methods
Year: 2025, Pages: 1-29 |
| ISSN: | 1759-2887 |
| DOI: | 10.1017/rsm.2025.10029 |
| Online Access: | Verlag, kostenfrei, Volltext: https://doi.org/10.1017/rsm.2025.10029 Verlag, kostenfrei, Volltext: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/research-synthesis-methods/article/how-to-conduct-an-individual-participant-data-metaanalysis-in-response-to-an-emerging-pathogen-lessons-learned-from-zika-and-covid19/4DECF9E18524A624718A7FFEFE7465EF 
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| Author Notes: | Lauren Maxwell, Priya Shreedhar, Laura Merson, Brooke Levis, Thomas P. A. Debray, Valentijn Marnix Theodoor de Jong, Ricardo Arraes de Alencar Ximenes, Thomas Jaenisch, Paul Gustafson and Mabel Carabali |
| Summary: | Sharing, harmonizing, and analyzing participant-level data is of central importance in the rapid research response to emerging pathogens. Individual participant data meta-analyses (IPD-MAs), which synthesize participant-level data from related primary studies, have several advantages over pooling study-level effect estimates in a traditional meta-analysis. IPD-MAs enable researchers to more effectively separate spurious heterogeneity related to differences in measurement from clinically relevant heterogeneity from differences in underlying risk or distribution of factors that modify disease progression. This tutorial describes the steps needed to conduct an IPD-MA of an emerging pathogen and how IPD-MAs of emerging pathogens differ from those of well-studied exposures and outcomes. We discuss key statistical issues, including participant- and study-level missingness and complex measurement error, and present recommendations. We review how IPD-MAs conducted during the COVID-19 response addressed these statistical challenges when harmonizing and analyzing participant-level data related to an emerging pathogen. The guidance presented here is based on lessons learned in our conduct of IPD-MAs in the research response to emerging pathogens, including Zika virus and COVID-19. |
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| Item Description: | Online veröffentlicht: 03. November 2025 Gesehen am 10.12.2025 |
| Physical Description: | Online Resource |
| ISSN: | 1759-2887 |
| DOI: | 10.1017/rsm.2025.10029 |