An Introduction of the Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Woo Jong Shin

doi:10.7599/hmr.2015.35.1.9

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Shin: An Introduction of the Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Review Article

Hanyang Medical Reviews 2015; 35(1): 9-17.

Published online: 26 February 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7599/hmr.2015.35.1.9

An Introduction of the Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Woo Jong Shin

Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Hanyang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.

Correspondence to: Woo Jong Shin. Departments of Anesthesia and Pain Medicine, Hanyang University Guri Hospital, 153 Kyungchoon-ro, Guri 471-701, Korea. Tel: +82-31-560-2390, Fax: +82-31-563-1731, swj0208@hanyang.ac.kr

Received 26 November 2014 Revised 24 December 2014 Accepted 31 December 2014

(open-access):

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Systematic reviews and meta-analysis represent a specific type of medical research in which an original article is a unit of analysis. These methods of research are essential tools in integrating scientific information, increasing the internal and external validity of the conclusions of original articles, and suggesting areas for future research. Meta-analysis is becoming popular because it can combine results from similar studies to calculate an overall estimate of a treatment effect. They are also necessary for the practice of evidence-based medicine and the medical decision making. However, conducting good quality systematic reviews is not easy and difficult to interpret. Since analysis of a data with meta-analysis is a relatively new field of research, many clinicians have not had the opportunity to learn about systematic review and meta-analysis systematically. An introduction of the rationale for carrying out meta-analysis will be helpful to the clinician in interpreting the results of meta-analysis.

Keywords: Evidence-Based Medicine, Meta-Analysis, Review

Figures and Tables

Fig. 1

Fixed-effect model; distribution of random error.

Fig. 2

Random-effect model; between study and within study variance.

Fig. 3

Example of a fixed-effect analysis.

Fig. 4

Example of a random-effect analysis.

Fig. 5

Example of a funnel-plot of precision by log odds ratio.

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ORCID iDs: Woo Jong Shin
https://orcid.org/http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3786-2267
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