Quantitative Synthesis in Systematic Reviews

摘要: The final common pathway for most systematic reviews is a statistical summary of the data, or meta-analysis. complex methods used in meta-analyses should always be complemented by clinical acumen and sense designing protocol review, deciding which data can combined, determining whether combined. Both continuous binary pooled. Most summarize from randomized trials, but other applications, such as evaluation diagnostic test performance observational studies, have also been developed. meta-analysis aim at evaluating diversity (heterogeneity) among results different exploring explaining observed heterogeneity, estimating pooled effect with increased precision. Fixed-effects models assume that an intervention has single true effect, whereas random-effects may vary across studies. Meta-regression analyses, using each study rather than patient unit observation, help to evaluate individual variables on magnitude thus sometimes explain why differ. It important assess robustness conclusions through sensitivity analyses formal potential sources bias, including publication bias quality studies effect.