382,714 papers found

The present article discusses the difficulties in using data from a meta-analysis of the effects of hormone replacement therapy on non-vertebral fractures. Comparison between the fracture data extracted from the primary studies and the data included in the meta-analysis showed discrepancies for the primary endpoint in…

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the use of the Gibbs-Sampler method in evaluating the relationship between clinic events and health risks in a meta-analysis of multiple clinical trials. METHODS: By using a generalized linear model with random-effects, Gibbs-Sampler technique was used in a meta-analysis of multiple clinical…

J. Milton and R. Wiseman (1999) attempted to replicate D. Bem and C. Honorton's (1994) meta-analysis, which yielded evidence that the ganzfeld is a suitable method for demonstrating anomalous communication. Using a database of 30 ganzfeld and autoganzfeld studies, Milton and Wiseman's meta-analysis yielded an effect si…

Meta-analysis is a method of data analysis applied to summarizing research findings, both quantitative and qualitative summaries of individual studies. Rooted in the fundamental values of the scientific enterprise of replicability, causal and correlational analysis, it is useful for answering three general questions: W…

The objective of this study was to determine the validity and reliability achieved in employing trained graduate students to read and evaluate the methodologic content of papers analyzing the health effects of electromagnetic field radiation. The search identified 11,730 references from multiple sources, of which 8759…

Meta-analysis is a quantitative process of summary and interpretation which involves pooling information from independent studies concerning a single theme in order to draw conclusions. Greatly increased employment of meta-analysis is currently being advocated for clinical and policy decision making. However, the prest…

Current methods for meta-analysis still leave a number of unresolved issues, such as the choice between fixed- and random-effects models, the choice of population distribution in a random-effects analysis, the treatment of small studies and extreme results, and incorporation of study-specific covariates. We describe ho…

Clinical trials studying the influence of hospital practices on breast-feeding duration were combined in a meta-analysis. Nine studies were selected. The global quality score was poor, and varied between 11.6 and 71.5 (Chalmers' scale). The results of each study were pooled using Peto's method and showed the following…

In order to quantify the impact of therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) services on the average number of serum drug assays (SDAs) ordered for patients, a meta-analysis was conducted on the data collected from 16 published and unpublished studies. Overall, TDM has no effect on the number of SDAs ordered per patient. Howev…

INTRODUCTION: Placental site trophoblastic tumour (PSTT) is a rare type of gestational trophoblastic malignancy. Despite different guidelines recommending surgery, chemotherapy or immunotherapy, there has been no optimal first-line treatment owing to its rarity. Direct comparisons of efficacy and safety across interven…

Meta-analyses of prevalence studies reporting rare anatomic variants are prone to selective reporting of non-null, confirmatory results, thus resulting in publication bias.

An overwhelming number of meta-analyses and reviews are published by scientific journals. In part this may reflect some preference of editors and publishers for these types of papers, which are more frequently cited and can increase the impact factor of their journals. Meta-analyses and reviews are also attractive for…

OBJECTIVE: The choice of bibliographic database during the systematic review search process has been an ongoing conversation among information specialists. With newer information sources, such as Google Scholar and clinical trials registries, we were interested in which databases were utilized by information specialist…

The Cochrane Collaboration is 20 years old this year. Established in 1993, the Collaboration has sought to provide an up-to-date, critical evidence base for all those involved in health care decision-making at a variety of levels. This article illustrates the work of the Cochrane Oral Health Group, based at the Univers…

BACKGROUND: General practitioners (GPs) are at high risk of burnout, which threatens physicians' mental health, care quality, and the sustainability of primary health care systems. Although a growing number of interventions have been developed to prevent or reduce burnout among GPs, their effectiveness and the mechanis…

INTRODUCTION: Primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) is characterised by overactive parathyroid glands and consequent calcium dysregulation. Renal stones (RS) are a recognised complication and are associated with substantial morbidity. However, RS risk factors in PHPT are not well established, and recent international guid…

Network meta-analysis (NMA) enables simultaneous assessment of multiple treatments by combining both direct and indirect evidence. While NMAs are increasingly important in healthcare decision-making, challenges remain due to limited direct comparisons between treatments. This data sparsity complicates the accurate esti…

The importance of network meta-analysis (NMA) methods for time-to-event (TTE) that do not rely on the proportional hazard (PH) assumption is increasingly recognized in oncology, where clinical trials evaluating new interventions versus standard comparators often violate this assumption. However, existing NMA methods th…

OBJECTIVES: To implement and evaluate a semi-automated approach to facilitate rating the Grading, Recommendation, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) certainty of evidence (CoE) for direct comparisons within two living network meta-analysis. METHODS: For each of three GRADE domains (study limitations, indir…