A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials of palliative care for pain among Chinese adults with cancer

Table 3 Effects of palliative care on cancer: subgroup analysis

Subgroup	No.of studies	No.of subjects	SMD	95%CI	Q	I²(%)	P^a
Age (years)							< 0.001
< 60	7	514	1.859***	1.348–2.369	34.01***	82.4
60–70	7	434	1.781***	1.142–2.420	46.95***	87.2
> 70	4	422	0.348*	0.081–0.616	5.51	45.6
Caner type							0.001
Liver	8	550	1.741***	1.177–2.304	55.80^***	87.5
Mixed	7	610	1.230**	0.449–1.962	97.31^***	93.8
Pharmacological strategies							< 0.001
Used in both groups	7	584	1.054**	0.423–1.686	73.36 ^***	91.8
Used in experimental group	11	786	1.750***	1.255–2.245	86.59 ^***	88.5
Non-pharmacological strategies							< 0.001
Used in experimental group	12	866	1.954***	1.473–2.435	93.62 ^***	88.2
Not used	6	504	0.564**	0.233–0.895	16.19 ^**	69.1
Publication date							< 0.001
< 2015	3	246	0.300	−0.104-0.705	4.59	56.4
2015–2016	5	458	1.461***	0.866–2.055	30.83 ^***	87.0
2017	5	278	2.167***	1.235–3.100	36.73 ^***	89.1
2018–2019	5	388	1.580***	0.776–2.384	47.95***	91.7

Abbreviations: SMD standardized mean difference
^** p < 0.01; ^*** p < 0.001
^a P of comparison between these subgroups [19], which is akin to analysis of variance. We partition the total variance into variance within groups and variance between groups, and then test these various components of variance for statistical significance, with the last (variance between groups) addressing the hypothesis that effect size differs as function of group membership

ISSN: 1472-684X