Summary
This technical report outlines the methodology for conducting a meta-analysis of two-group continuous-scale studies. It details the necessary statistics for each study, including sample size, mean, and standard deviation for both treatment and control groups. The report explains the significance of meta-analysis in evidence-based medicine, highlighting its role in systematically reviewing studies to combine results and increase statistical power. It describes various diagnostic plots such as forest plots and funnel plots, which aid in the investigation and presentation of study results. The document also discusses fixed and random-effects models for analysis, including the assumptions and calculations involved in each. Additionally, it presents hypothesis tests for assessing treatment effect variation across studies and introduces heterogeneity measures, including the H index and I2 index, which quantify the variability in treatment effects. The report concludes with methods for estimating between-study variance, essential for accurate meta-analysis.
