Research Paper Volume 11, Issue 16 pp 5895—5923

Figure 4. Meta-analysis forest plots for predicting time-to-death due to all-cause mortality and time-to-cardiovascular disease in independent validation data. Meta-analysis forest plot for combining Cox regression hazard ratios for time-to-death, time-to-coronary heart disease (CHD), and time-to-congestive heart failure (CHF), based on age-adjusted DNAmTL (DNAmTLadjAge). The sample sizes for the analysis were up to 9,044 methylation arrays (8,541 individuals) across 8 cohorts. Left panels, middle panels, and right panels report meta-analysis results for (1) simple Cox regression models, (2) multivariate Cox models adjusted for blood cell counts, and (3) multivariate Cox model adjusted for traditional risk factors, respectively. Each row reports the hazard ratio associated with DNAmTLadjAge. (1) The simple Cox models (left panels) were adjusted for chronological age, sex and adjusted for intra-pedigree correlation and batch effects as needed. (2) The models in the middle panels involved additional covariates: imputed blood cell counts based on DNA methylation data. (3) The models in the right panels different from those of (1) by additional demographic characteristics, psychosocial behavior, and clinical covariates (Methods). Each panel reports a meta-analysis forest plot for combining hazard ratios associated with time to event. Each row presents the summary statistic at a (stratified) study dataset and reports sample size (N), number of events, hazard ratio and a 95% confidence interval resulting from a Cox regression model. In general, an insignificant Cochran Q test p-value (denoted by Het. P) is desirable.