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Meta-Analysis

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Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine

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Definition

A meta-analysis is a quantitative evaluation of the evidence provided by two or more individual research studies that have addressed the same question. It commonly involves the statistical combination of summary statistics from various trials, but it also refers to analyses performed on the combination of raw data.

Description

Purposes of meta-analyses include:

  • Providing a more precise estimate of the overall treatment effect of interest.

  • Evaluating whether overall positive results are also seen in prespecified subgroups of participants.

  • Evaluating apparently conflicting study results.

The conceptual basis of meta-analysis is straightforward: More data will provide a better opportunity to get a meaningful answer to a research question. However, appropriate implementation of the required statistical techniques and the appropriate interpretation of the results obtained are not so straightforward. Synthesizing the results from many individual studies can be difficult and...

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References and Readings

  • Kay, R. (2007). Statistical thinking for non-statisticians in drug regulation. Chichester, UK: Wiley.

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  • Turner, J. R. (2011). Editor’s commentary: Additional associate editors, new submission category, and meta-methodology. Drug Information Journal, 45, 405–411.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cardiovascular Safety, Quintiles, Durham, NC, USA

    Dr. J. Rick Turner

Authors
  1. Dr. J. Rick Turner
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to J. Rick Turner .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Behavioral Medicine Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA

    Marc D. Gellman

  2. Cardiovascular Safety, Quintiles, Durham, NC, USA

    J. Rick Turner

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© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media, New York

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Turner, J.R. (2013). Meta-Analysis. In: Gellman, M.D., Turner, J.R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1005-9_1038

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1005-9_1038

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-1004-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-1005-9

  • eBook Packages: MedicineReference Module Medicine

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