381,978 papers found

Network meta-analysis allows researchers to synthesise both direct and indirect evidence, thus enabling simultaneous comparisons of multiple treatments. A relatively recent addition to evidence synthesis in reproductive medicine, this approach has become increasingly popular. Yet, the underlying assumptions of network…

In this study we investigated the influence of data nonnormality in the primary studies on meta-analysis of the standardized mean difference (SMD) for a two-independent-group design. The bias, mean squared error, and confidence interval coverage probability of the mean effect sizes under different types of population d…

Systematic reviews ideally provide a comprehensive and unbiased summary of existing evidence from clinical studies, whilst meta-analysis combines the results of these studies to produce an overall estimate. Collectively, this makes them invaluable for clinical decision-making. Although the number of published systemati…

This paper investigates the use of SIMEX, a simulation-based measurement error correction technique, for meta-analysis of studies involving the baseline risk of subjects in the control group as explanatory variable. The approach accounts for the measurement error affecting the information about either the outcome in th…

Meta-analysis is a widely employed method for the synthesis of effect sizes across diverse studies; however, traditional meta-analytic models do not address potential bias due to systematic error. In response, bias-adjusted models of meta-analysis have emerged. One of these is the quality effects (QE) model that was in…

Viribay and colleagues published a meta-analysis called "Effects of Arginine Supplementation on Athletic Performance Based on Energy Metabolism: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis" inin May of 2020. This meta-analysis sought to quantify the effects of arginine supplementation on aerobic and anaerobic performance out…

This critique evaluates the systematic review and meta-analysis titled "Local anesthesia with sedation and general anesthesia for the treatment of chronic subdural hematoma." The study provides valuable insights into anesthesia techniques' effectiveness in managing this condition but has limitations, including selectio…

As the outcomes of systematic reviews and meta-analysis are used to inform clinical practice it is imperative that the review and meta-analysis conducted is accurate and rigorous. In this commentary the authors wish to review the recommended approaches to be used when conducting a meta-analysis of quantitative data in…

Prediction intervals are commonly used in meta-analysis with random-effects models. One widely used method, the Higgins-Thompson-Spiegelhalter prediction interval, replaces the heterogeneity parameter with its point estimate, but its validity strongly depends on a large sample approximation. This is a weakness in meta-…

The number of medical studies being published is increasing exponentially, and clinicians must routinely process large amounts of new information. Moreover, the results of individual studies are often insufficient to provide confident answers, as their results are not consistently reproducible. A meta-analysis is a sta…

We present a new tool for meta-analysis, Meta-Essentials, which is free of charge and easy to use. In this paper, we introduce the tool and compare its features to other tools for meta-analysis. We also provide detailed information on the validation of the tool. Although free of charge and simple, Meta-Essentials autom…

We introduce multilevel multivariate meta-analysis methodology designed to account for the complexity of contemporary psychological research data. Our methodology directly models the observations from a set of studies in a manner that accounts for the variation and covariation induced by the facts that observations dif…

This study challenges two core conventional meta-analysis methods: fixed effect and random effects. We show how and explain why an unrestricted weighted least squares estimator is superior to conventional random-effects meta-analysis when there is publication (or small-sample) bias and better than a fixed-effect weight…