1999/03/25 by John C. Bailar · 5 citations
Medicine · #Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control #Cardiovascular Disease and Adiposity #Antioxidant Activity and Oxidative Stress #Medicine #Meta-analysis #Confidence interval #Randomized controlled trial #Coronary disease #Coronary heart disease #MEDLINE #Disease #Intensive care medicine #Internal medicine
paper · doi:10.1056/nejm199903253401211
openalex publication_date 1999/03/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
Meta-analysis — the formal combination of the research results from multiple studies — is widely used, but with little general understanding of its limitations and uncertainties. There is something quite appealing about collecting all the available research on some question and reducing it to a single figure or a single confidence interval. When properly used, this approach can be useful. However, there is broad evidence that the results of meta-analyses are often not very reliable. LeLorier et al.1 have shown that many meta-analyses do not agree with the results of subsequent large, randomized trials, and there is little reason to . . .