RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Meta-analysis: Its strengths and limitations
JF Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine
JO Cleve Clin J Med
FD Cleveland Clinic
SP 431
OP 439
VO 75
IS 6
A1 Esteban Walker
A1 Adrian V. Hernandez
A1 Michael W. Kattan
YR 2008
UL http://www.ccjm.org/content/75/6/431.abstract
AB Nowadays, doctors face an overwhelming amount of information, even in narrow areas of interest. In response, reviews designed to summarize the large volumes of information are frequently published. When a review is done systematically, following certain criteria, and the results are pooled and analyzed quantitatively, it is called a meta-analysis. A well-designed meta-analysis can provide valuable information for researchers, policymakers, and clinicians. However, there are many critical caveats in performing and interpreting them, and thus many ways in which meta-analyses can yield misleading information.