382,008 papers found

This special issue is an introduction to meta-analytic approaches, methods, and findings in neuropsychology. The six articles that comprise this issue include a review article, one article examining the statistical power of a specific research literature, and four new meta-analyses on neuropsychological topics. Togethe…

Meta-analysis is a relatively new development in medicine. It is conceptually appealing, summarizing the medical literature in a rigorous manner and providing clinicians with a global picture regarding the merits of interventions. This process can help clinicians choose appropriate, evidence-based management options fo…

Meta-analysis provides a powerful statistical tool for epidemiological study. The basic principle of meta-analysis is introduced in this paper, and some problems about its application in epidemiology are discussed. This method was used by the authors to study the relationship between exposure to extreme low frequency e…

Including all relevant material--good, bad, and indifferent--in meta-analysis admits the subjective judgments that meta-analysis was designed to avoid. Several problems arise in meta-analysis: regressions are often non-linear; effects are often multivariate rather than univariate; coverage can be restricted; bad studie…

Bayesian analysis is a method by which the reliability of diagnostic tests can be determined. It produces a probability of a patient having the disease given a positive test result (posterior probability). If more than one study of a given test's diagnostic accuracy is done, then how can we determine which of these stu…

Recently Papola et al. (2023) published a network meta-analysis (NMA) on psychotherapy of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and concluded that cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) should be considered the first-line treatment for GAD. However, there are several concerns with regard to the procedures and the conclusions…

Bayesian hierarchical models offer a principled framework for adjusting for study-level bias in meta-analysis, but their complexity and sensitivity to prior specifications necessitate a systematic framework for robust application. This study demonstrates the application of a Bayesian workflow to this challenge, compari…

The trace plot is seldom used in meta-analysis, yet it is a very informative plot. In this article, we define and illustrate what the trace plot is, and discuss why it is important. The Bayesian version of the plot combines the posterior density of, the between-study standard deviation, and the shrunken estimates of th…

While both methodological and applied work on Bayesian meta-analysis have flourished, Bayesian modeling of differences between groups of studies remains scarce in meta-analyses in psychology, education, and the social sciences. On rare occasions when Bayesian approaches have been used, non-informative prior distributio…

In a recent issue of the BMC Public Health journal, Bian et al. described the results of an interesting meta-analysis on the association between dairy products consumption and risk of hip fracture. Although the results are important and valuable, some critical points should be noticed in the explanation of these findin…

UNLABELLED: Although qualitative research has long been of interest in the field of psychology, meta-analyses of qualitative literatures (sometimes called meta-syntheses) are still quite rare. Like quantitative meta-analyses, these methods function to aggregate findings and identify patterns across primary studies, but…

Simulation studies to evaluate performance of statistical methods require a well-specified data-generating model. Details of these models are essential to interpret the results and arrive at proper conclusions. A case in point is random-effects meta-analysis of dichotomous outcomes. We reviewed a number of simulation s…

ARTICLE TITLE AND BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION: Network Meta-Analysis on the Effect of Desensitizing Toothpastes on Dentine Hypersensitivity. Hu ML, Zheng G, Lin H, Yang M, Zhang YD, Han JM. J Dent 2019;88:103170. SOURCE OF FUNDING: National Natural Science Foundation of China (81771119). TYPE OF STUDY/DESIGN: Systemati…

Umbrella review is a newly developed method, used for evidence-based medicine analysis. It is somehow better than systematic reviews and Meta-analysis for medical evidence analysis. It is based on systematic reviews and Meta-analysis but in a more sophisticate way. In many specific occasions, it is similar to Meta-anal…