Abstract
Meta analyses are commonly published in the medical literature. The first part of the chapter explains the general principles and interpretation of meta analyses. The use of magnesium for the treatment of myocardial infarction is used as an example of how a meta analysis can demonstrate a significant treatment effect erroneously. This is a well known example. A second less well known example of how a meta analysis appeared to suggest a beneficial effect of aspirin to reduce the risk of stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation is examined in detail. Meta regression is examined in Sect. 7.9 with an example from the medical literature. Section 7.10 covers the use of Bayesian methods for meta analysis with three examples from the medical literature. Finally network meta analysis is explained with two examples from the medical literature.
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Owen, A. (2023). Meta Analysis. In: Statistics for Clinicians. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-30904-5_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-30904-5_7
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