Systematic Reviews in Health Care Meta-Analysis in Context

by Egger, Matthias; Davey Smith, George; Altman, Douglas

• ISBN13: 9780727914880
• ISBN10: 072791488X
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-03-05
• Publisher: BMJ Books

Summary

The second edition of this best-selling book has been thoroughly revised and expanded to reflect the significant changes and advances made in systematic reviewing. New features include discussion on the rationale, meta-analyses of prognostic and diagnostic studies and software, and the use of systematic reviews in practice.

Author Biography

Matthias Egger is professor of epidemiology and public health at the University of Bern in Switzerland, as well as professor of clinical epidemiology at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom.

George Davey-Smith is the editor of Systematic Reviews in Health Care: Meta-Analysis in Context, 2nd Edition, published by Wiley.

Douglas G. Altman, Centre for Statistics in Medicine, University of Oxford and EQUATOR Network, Oxford, UK.

Table of Contents

Contributors	viii
Foreword	xiii
Introduction
Rationale, potentials, and promise of systematic reviews	3	(20)
Matthias Egger
George Davey Smith
Keith O'Rourke
Part I: Systematic reviews of controlled trials
Principles of and procedures for systematic reviews	23	(20)
Matthias Egger
George Davey Smith
Problems and limitations in conducting systematic reviews	43	(26)
Matthias Egger
Kay Dickersin
George Davey Smith
Identifying randomised trials	69	(18)
Carol Lefebvre
Michael J Clarke
Assessing the quality of randomised controlled trials	87	(22)
Peter Juni
Douglas G Altman
Matthias Egger
Obtaining individual patient data from randomised controlled trials	109	(13)
Michael J Clarke
Lesley A Stewart
Assessing the quality of reports of systematic reviews: the QUOROM statement compared to other tools	122	(21)
Beverley Shea
Catherine Dube
David Moher
Part II: Investigating variability within and between studies
Going beyond the grand mean: subgroup analysis in meta-analysis of randomised trials	143	(14)
George Davey Smith
Matthias Egger
Why and how sources of heterogeneity should be investigated	157	(19)
Simon G Thompson
Analysing the relationship between treatment benefit and underlying risk: precautions and recommendations	176	(13)
Stephen J Sharp
Investigating and dealing with publication and other biases	189	(22)
Jonathan A C Sterne
Matthias Egger
George Davey Smith
Part III: Systematic reviews of observational studies
Systematic reviews of observational studies	211	(17)
Matthias Egger
George Davey Smith
Martin Schneider
Systematic reviews of evaluations of prognostic variables	228	(20)
Douglas G Altman
Systematic reviews of evaluations of diagnostic and screening tests	248	(37)
Jonathan J Deeks
Part IV: Statistical methods and computer software
Statistical methods for examining heterogeneity and combining results from several studies in meta-analysis	285	(28)
Jonathan J Deeks
Douglas G Altman
Michael J Bradburn
Effect measures for meta-analysis of trials with binary outcomes	313	(23)
Jonathan J Deeks
Douglas G Altman
Meta-analysis software	336	(11)
Jonathan A C Sterne
Matthias Egger
Alexander J Sutton
Meta-analysis in Stata™	347	(26)
Jonathan A C Sterne
Michael J Bradburn
Matthias Egger
Part V: Using systematic reviews in practice
Applying the results of systematic reviews at the bedside	373	(13)
Finlay A McAlister
Numbers needed to treat derived from meta-analyses: pitfalls and cautions	386	(14)
Shah Ebrahim
Using systematic reviews in clinical guideline development	400	(10)
Martin Eccles
Nick Freemantle
James Mason
Using systematic reviews for evidence based policy making	410	(9)
J A Muir Gray
Using systematic reviews for economic evaluation	419	(10)
Miranda Mugford
Using systematic reviews and registers of ongoing trials for scientific and ethical trial design, monitoring, and reporting	429	(18)
Iain Chalmers
Part VI: The Cochrane Collaboration
The Cochrane Collaboration in the 20th century	447	(12)
Gerd Antes
Andrew D Oxman
The Cochrane Collaboration in the 21st century: ten challenges and one reason why they must be met	459	(16)
Andrew D Oxman
Index	475