Confused about meta-analysis, please help!!

I'm slightly desperate for help as my deadline is coming up.

Does a meta-analysis combine the findings of the studies to produce one finding?

Like say, you have a load of RCTs of whether a treatment intervention works or not (and there are many variables contributing to it), does a meta-analysis give you an overall answer 'yes' or 'no'? or does it give you themes aswell, giving you the weighting for the variable contributing to it?

I hope that makes sense, and thanks so much in advance for the help :smile:

I really appreciate it x

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Reply 2

blackswan1

a meta-analysis reviews the previous studies in order to draw common conclusions from them overall, it's more yes/no than adding weighting to a side :smile:

hope this helps

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Reply 3

iammichealjackson

18

Original post by Kayto

I'm slightly desperate for help as my deadline is coming up.

Does a meta-analysis combine the findings of the studies to produce one finding?

Like say, you have a load of RCTs of whether a treatment intervention works or not (and there are many variables contributing to it), does a meta-analysis give you an overall answer 'yes' or 'no'? or does it give you themes aswell, giving you the weighting for the variable contributing to it?

I hope that makes sense, and thanks so much in advance for the help :smile:

I really appreciate it x

Yes. Although it may be helpful to know the difference between a review and a meta-analysis. A review doesn't give you a "weighted effect size", it simply tries to cover every study on a given topic and try to delineate themes/conclusions/prospects for an area of research.

Meta-analysis, on the other hand, is a form of statistical analysis. It takes into account the effect size (and direction of effect) and sample size of every study and puts the statistics of various studies into ONE overall effect size.

meta-analysis (Koehler 2013, J Exp Criminol).png

meta-analysis (Koehler 2013, J Exp Criminol).png

A key difference that a review of the research on the topic shown above (on rehabilitative interventions on offenders under the age of 25) would conclude that MOST STUDIES do not show a significant effect of rehabilitation (Only 5 do if you observe the confidence intervals). However, the final two estimates (fixed and random) give an overall WEIGHTED effect size which takes into account every study, and shows an overall positive (but fairly small) effect.

Reply 4

Kayto

OP

Thank you so much for your help and time, I really appreciate it :smile:

I will be using a meta-analysis, are you well acquainted with the fixed and random effects model? ( I have a question on that too, if you don't mind. It is rather long though ahh.)

But thank you for your answer, it really cleared things up!

Reply 5

iammichealjackson

18

Original post by Kayto

Thank you so much for your help and time, I really appreciate it :smile:

I will be using a meta-analysis, are you well acquainted with the fixed and random effects model? ( I have a question on that too, if you don't mind. It is rather long though ahh.)

But thank you for your answer, it really cleared things up!

Not really! Haven't performed a meta-analysis before, just know the basics...

Confused about meta-analysis, please help!!

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