Of the 33 trials in the Cochrane review, 11 were included in this review; data could not be obtained for the remainder. Thus, only 35% of the eligible data and 36% of the participants were included in this review.
There was no statistically significant heterogeneity for any pooled OR at any time point. The pooled ORs revealed no statistically significant relative advantage of men over women in response to transdermal NRT patch at any follow-up duration.
Early (8 trials): the OR was 0.97 (95% confidence interval, CI: 0.69, 1.36, P=0.88; heterogeneity, P=0.80).
Six months (11 trials): the OR was 1.33 (95% CI: 0.91, 1.95, P=0.14; heterogeneity, P=0.74).
Twelve months (10 trials): the OR was 1.21 (95% CI: 0.79, 1.84, P=0.38; heterogeneity, P=0.75).
The Begg rank correlation suggested no evidence of a differential gender response to NRT influencing the ascertainment of the data (P values >0.71).
The pooled difference in placebo quit rates in men and women at all time points were not statistically significantly different.
The pooled ORs for all trials of the transdermal patch from the Cochrane review (OR 1.93, 95% CI: 1.58, 2.36) were compared with those included in this review (OR 1.69, 95% CI: 1.50, 1.93). The difference was not statistically significant (P=0.28).