Meta-Analysis in Medical Research

Abstract

Meta-analysis is a quantitative approach for systematically combining the results of previous researches in order to arrive at useful conclusions from a body of research. Meta-analyses offer a systematic and quantitative approach to synthesising evidence to answer important therapeutic questions. Nevertheless, pitfalls abound in the execution of meta-analyses and they are fundamentally limited by the quality of the underlying studies. For healthcare managers and clinicians, careful reviewing of published meta-analyses and a balanced assessment of their deficiencies is likely to become an increasingly important in resolving therapeutic uncertainty. It is most useful in summarizing prior research findings when individual studies are too small to yield a valid conclusion. Meta-analysis is most often applied to combine the results of Randomised Control trials (RCTs). For non-experimental studies, this method is powerful when there are many studies with low statistical power. Meta-analyses are now a hallmark of evidence-based medicine.