Multimodel inference / Model averaging.

Akaike information criterion (AIC) and Akaike weights are reported for the 3 models (log-logistic, Weibull 1 and Weibull 2) analyzed through the 3 summarization strategies (mixed effects, meta-analysis and weighted regression). The estimates and model averaged estimates of the difference of the time for half-decrease of the level during recovery between patients with moderate and severe COPD (GOLD 4 vs. 2) are provided together with their associated standard error (SE).