Home|Journals|Articles by Year|Audio Abstracts
 

Technical Note

PBS. 2016; 6(2): 93-8


Understanding and interpreting meta analyses

Selim Kılıç.




Abstract

A meta-analysis a statistical method that integrates the quantitative findings from separate but similar studies and provides a numerical estimate of interest. A well conducted systematic review is very important before performing a successful meta-analysis. It is necessary to test heterogeneity between studies included in meta-analysis. Publication bias is a major problem in meta-analysis. So funnel plots should use to detect a possible publication bias. Sensitivity analysis is also an important statistical method to reduce the uncertainty. A forest plot will make easier to interpret the aggregate effect size obtained by combining all the studies included in meta-analysis. In conclusion, careful reviewing of published meta-analyses and a balanced assessment of their deficiencies is likely to become an increasingly important way of resolving uncertainty in healthcare practices.

Key words: systematic review, heterogeneity, publication bias






Full-text options


Share this Article


Online Article Submission
• ejmanager.com




ejPort - eJManager.com
Refer & Earn
JournalList
About BiblioMed
License Information
Terms & Conditions
Privacy Policy
Contact Us

The articles in Bibliomed are open access articles licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.