How to conduct and report checking transitivity and inconsistency in network-meta-analysis: a narrative review including practical worked examples, code and source data for sports and exercise medicine researchers

The use of network meta-analysis (NMA) in sport and exercise medicine (SEM) research continues to rise as it enables the comparison of multiple interventions that may not have been assessed in a single randomised controlled trial. NMA can then inform clinicians on potentially better interventions. Despite the increased use of NMA, we have observed that in the SEM field, a key challenge for author groups can be the assessment and reporting of key assumptions, in particular transitivity …