MPH2039

Meta analysis

Dr M Abramson

2 hours per week over 14 weeks

Synopsis The purpose of this subject is to expose students to the strengths and weaknesses of literature reviews and to teach a systematic approach to summarising the available evidence on clinical topics. It aims to develop skills in the critical appraisal of literature reviews; problem formulation and protocol development; intra-rater agreement for assessment of relevance; validity assessments; data collection forms; variation between study findings, combining the findings of independent studies, inferences based upon overviews; statistics of meta analysis.

Assessment A meta analysis project of publishable standard.

Prescribed texts

Light R J and others Summing up: The science of reviewing research Harvard U P, 1984
Oxman A (ed.) Cochrane Collaboration Handbook Section VI Preparing and maintaining systematic reviews 1994
Yusuf S, Simon R and Ellenberg S (eds) `Proceedings of methodological issues in overviews of randomised controlled trials' in Statistics in Medicine 6: 217-409, 1987