Table 3

Sensitivity analyses

Analysis		All cause admission			Mortality
Analysis		No of patients (no of trials)	RR (95% CI)	p Value	No of patients (no of trials)	RR (95% CI)	p Value
CHF, congestive heart failure; CI, confidence interval; ITT, intention to treat; RR, relative risk.
Random versus fixed effects
Random effects		6569 (21)	0.87 (0.79 to 0.95)	0.002	7447 (27)	0.79 (0.69 to 0.92)	0.002
Fixed effects		6569 (21)	0.90 (0.85 to 0.95)	<0.001	7447 (27)	0.85 (0.77 to 0.94)	0.001
Removing outliers
Base case		6569 (21)	0.87 (0.79 to 0.95)	0.002	7447 (27)	0.79 (0.69 to 0.92)	0.002
Removing extreme trials		5831 (19)	0.89 (0.83 to 0.94)	<0.001	7213 (26)	0.83 (0.73 to 0.95)	0.006
Quality component
1.	Concealed allocation	2238 (10)	0.92 (0.80 to 1.05)	0.22	3161 (11)	0.87 (0.74 to 1.01)	0.07
	No clear concealment	4331 (11)	0.82 (0.73 to 0.95)	0.01	4286 (16)	0.74 (0.58 to 0.94)	0.01
2.	ITT	5363 (14)	0.88 (0.79 to 0.99)	0.03	5589 (17)	0.76 (0.63 to 0.91)	0.003
	Unclear if ITT used	1206 (7)	0.83 (0.73 to 0.94)	0.002	1858 (10)	0.86 (0.67 to 1.12)	0.26
3.	Data cross checked	3859 (13)	0.86 (0.75 to 0.99)	0.03	2587 (13)	0.86 (0.72 to 1.03)	0.10
	No clear cross check	2710 (8)	0.89 (0.80 to 0.98)	0.02	4860 (14)	0.72 (0.69 to 0.92)	0.007
Overall quality score
High score (>5 of 8)		4577 (16)	0.85 (0.75 to 0.95)	0.005	4793 (20)	0.82 (0.71 to 0.96)	0.01
Low score (⩽5 of 8)		1992 (5)	0.94 (0.86 to 1.04)	0.50	2654 (7)	0.69 (0.45 to 1.05)	0.08
Level of randomisation
Individual patient only		4510 (18)	0.84 (0.75 to 0.94)	0.002	5388 (24)	0.76 (0.64 to 0.90)	0.002
Cluster trial		2059 (3)	0.97 (0.89 to 1.07)	0.56	2059 (3)	0.99 (0.83 to 1.18)	0.92
Origin of data
Published article		4315 (13)	0.86 (0.75 to 0.98)	0.02	4740 (21)	0.83 (0.81 to 0.97)	0.02
Data from author/abstract		2254 (8)	0.87 (0.79 to 0.95)	0.003	2707 (6)	0.70 (0.48 to 1.02)	0.06
Intensity
High		3593 (11)	0.85 (0.75 to 0.97)	0.02	4550 (15)	0.76 (0.63 to 0.92)	0.005
Low		2976 (10)	0.88 (0.76 to 1.01)	0.07	2897 (12)	0.84 (0.66 to 1.06)	0.15
Target of intervention
High risk CHF patient		1354 (7)	0.82 (0.69 to 0.96)	0.02	1586 (7)	0.81 (0.58 to 1.15)	0.25
Any CHF patient		4543 (11)	0.86 (0.78 to 0.96)	0.007	5693 (18)	0.79 (0.67 to 0.94)	0.008
Variety of diagnoses		672 (3)	1.02 (0.72 to 1.44)	0.91	168 (2)	0.73 (0.36 to 1.51)	0.40