Meta-analysis of screening data: a survey of the literature

✍ Scribed by S. D. Walter; A. R. Jadad

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 119 KB
• Volume: 18
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0277-6715
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0258(19991230)18:24<3409::aid-sim377>3.0.co;2-8

✦ Synopsis

Meta-analysis has become a popular technique in many areas of biomedical research. While there have been a number of studies and commentaries on the use of meta-analyses and systematic reviews of clinical trials of therapy, little is known about the use of meta-analysis techniques for the evaluation of screening data. This paper presents the "rst systematic survey of meta-analyses of screening, with an assessment of their methodologic quality and their statistical methods. Our "ndings show that meta-analysis has not often been used in this area as yet, and that published meta-analyses of screening are often de"cient in their reporting of methodology. A brief examination of the evaluative methods of several policy-making groups reveals that they did not routinely use formal quantitative meta-analyses of screening data, at least until 1997. There is considerable potential for meta-analyses of this kind, but improvement in methodological standards will be required to obtain valid conclusions.