Introduction to systematic reviews and meta-analysis.
Systematic reviews provide a method for collating and synthesizing research, and are used to inform healthcare decision making by clinicians, consumers and policy makers. A core component of many systematic reviews is a meta-analysis, which is a statistical synthesis of results across studies. In this review article, we introduce meta-analysis, focusing on the different meta-analysis models, their interpretation, how a model should be selected and discuss potential threats to the validity of meta-analyses. We illustrate the application of meta-analysis using data from a review examining the effects of early use of inhaled corticosteroids in the emergency department treatment of acute asthma.
School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Joanne E
JE
McKenzie
Centre for Research in Evidence-Based Practice, Bond University, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.
Elaine M
EM
Beller
School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.|The Victorian Centre for Biostatistics (ViCBiostat), Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Andrew B
AB
Forbes
D000305:Adrenal Cortex Hormones; D001249:Asthma; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000639:trends*; D020000:Decision Support Systems, Clinical / Q000639:trends*; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination / Q000379:methods*; D015201:Meta-Analysis as Topic; D015272:Pulmonary Medicine; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D012196:Review Literature as Topic; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D000305:Adrenal Cortex Hormones
fixed effect model; meta-analysis; random effects model; systematic review; tutorial