title: A practical introduction to multivariate meta-analysis.
abstract: Multivariate meta-analysis is becoming increasingly popular and official routines or self-programmed functions have been included in many statistical software. In this article, we review the statistical methods and the related software for multivariate meta-analysis. Emphasis is placed on Bayesian methods using Markov chain Monte Carlo, and codes in WinBUGS are provided. The various model-fitting options are illustrated in two examples and specific guidance is provided on how to run a multivariate meta-analysis using various software packages.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, University of Ioannina School of Medicine, Ioannina, Greece.
authors.forename: Dimitris
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mavridis
authors.forename: Georgia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Salanti
mesh_terms: D001499:Bayes Theorem; D006801:Humans; D008390:Markov Chains; D015201:Meta-Analysis as Topic; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D012984:Software