May 27, 2025
Lesmes meta-analysis protocol for animal studies
This protocol is a draft, published without a DOI.
- Lida Carolina Lesmes Rodriguez1,
- Adolfo Vásquez Trujillo1,
- Dumar Alexander Jaramillo Hernández1
- 1Universidad de los Llanos
Protocol Citation: Lida Carolina Lesmes Rodriguez, Adolfo Vásquez Trujillo, Dumar Alexander Jaramillo Hernández 2025. Lesmes meta-analysis protocol for animal studies. protocols.io https://protocols.io/view/lesmes-meta-analysis-protocol-for-animal-studies-gz4fbx8tp
License: This is an open access protocol distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
Protocol status: Working
We use this protocol and it's working
Created: May 26, 2025
Last Modified: May 27, 2025
Protocol Integer ID: 218983
Keywords: Ixodidae, zoonosis, cattle farming, reservoir, canines., analysis protocol for animal study, combined effect of bacterial exposure, bacterial exposure, animal study, study outcome, animal studies two investigator, included study, eligible study, study, analysis, prevalence, studies two investigator, hazard ratio, bacteria, health parameter, study design
Abstract
Two investigators will check the titles and abstracts of included papers. The full text of all potentially eligible studies will be retrieved and independently assessed against the inclusion criteria. The selection process will be summarized using a PRISMA flow diagram. For the articles selected, we will extract the study design, number of animals and their characteristics, location in Colombia, year of publication, diagnostic method, prevalence and/or seroprevalence ratio, and associations (risk or protection factors). We will assess the risk of bias in all included studies using the JBI’s critical appraisal tools to assist in the trustworthiness, relevance, and results of the papers. We will perform meta-analyses using random-effects models to estimate the combined effect of bacterial exposure on each study outcome. We will estimate the association between environmental or health parameters and the study outcomes (hazard ratio, risk ratio, odds ratio, 95% confidence intervals, mean, and SD). Finally, we will perform subgroup analyses according to the bacteria, the animal, and the geographical regions of Colombia.
Troubleshooting
Data collection process
Data extraction (selection and coding)
The full text of all potentially eligible studies will be retrieved and independently assessed against the inclusion criteria.
Two reviewers will decide which of the studies fit the inclusion criteria: any disagreements will be resolved by discussion with the third reviewer.
The selection process will be summarized using a PRISMA flow diagram.
Data from selected articles will be transferred from their original presentation to a proper form made in Microsoft Excel software, with each study receiving a reference code. If necessary, we will collect indirect data from figures and charts.
For the articles selected, we will collect the following information: study design, number of animals and their characteristics, location in Colombia (department and municipality), year of publication, diagnostic method, prevalence and/or seroprevalence ratio and associations (risk or protection factors).
Risk of bias (quality) assessment
We will assess the risk of bias of all included studies in accordance with the JBI’s critical appraisal tools to assist in the trustworthiness, relevance and results of papers. The quality of the included evidence will be critically appraised by one reviewer and confirmed by a second reviewer.
Planned data and synthesis
Strategy for data synthesis
We will produce two descriptive summary tables of all included studies to synthesize the information from the literature. One table describing the prevalence studies and the other one describing the seroprevalence studies. Animals will be pooled and presented as a percentage taking into account the exposure to each bacterium.
We will perform meta-analyses using random-effects models to estimate the combined effect of bacterial exposure on each of the study outcomes. Meta-analysis for the association between bacterial exposure and each outcome will be undertaken separately.
We will quantify heterogeneity between studies using the I² statistic.
Between-study variance will be estimated using the τ² (T2) statistic.
We will perform sensitivity analyses on basis of the risk of bias results in the studies, to assess the robustness of our findings to different assumptions.
We will estimate the combined effect estimates from studies.
We will estimate the association between environmental or health parameters and the study outcomes (hazard ratio, risk ratio, odds ratio, 95% confidence intervals, mean and SD).
Analysis of subgroups or subsets
We will perform subgroup analyses according to the bacteria, the animals, and the geographical regions of Colombia.