Objectives: To understand the statistical methodology of network meta-analysis and the assumption of consistency. To present a methodology that can be used to evaluate the credibility of evidence.

Description: This is the second of two workshops on how to conduct Cochrane Reviews that aim to compare more than two interventions, and it is focused on statistical methodology for network meta-analysis. Network meta-analysis is the statistical methodology used to combine evidence in a network of trials that compares more than two interventions. The workshop will provide insight into network meta-analysis models that can be used to derive estimates for the relative effects of all treatments of interest. We will present approaches to check for and account for inconsistency in the results and we will present applications of multiple-treatments meta-regression models. We will present a framework based on the GRADE (Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations) system that can be used to evaluate the credibility of the results from network meta-analysis.