Abstract
Meta-analyses can be defined as systematic reviews with pooled data. Because the separate studies in a meta-analysis have different sample sizes for the overall results a weighted average has to be calculated. Heterogeneity in a meta-analysis means that the differences in the results between the studies are larger than could happen by chance. The calculation of the overall result and the test for heterogeneity is demonstrated underneath. With a significant heterogeneity the meaning of the pooled data is generally little. With significant heterogeneity in a meta-analysis, a careful investigation of its potential cause is more important than lots of statistical tests.
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© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
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Cleophas, T.J., Zwinderman, A.H. (2016). Meta-analysis of Continuous Data. In: Clinical Data Analysis on a Pocket Calculator. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27104-0_32
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27104-0_32
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Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-27103-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-27104-0
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