Systematic review and Meta-analysis

Systematic review

• systematic review vs non-systematic review
• every SR does not have a meta-analysis
  • such as Delphi method

strength of SR

weakness of SR

Meta-analysis

• MA does not require SR

network meta-analysis

• to compare efficacy of multiple treatment arms

strength of MA

• overcome publication bias

weakness of MA

conduct SR/MA

• no guidelines on the number of included studies in SR/MA
• Cochrane has published SR/MA with only 1 study included

optimal databases

Bramer WM, et al. Syst Rev. 2017 PMID:29208034

• Medline/PubMed
• Web of Science
• Embase and/or Scopus
  • overlapping ratio between Embase and Scopus is very high
• Google Scholar
  • grey literature

as many as possible

• grey literatures
  • Google Scholar
  • New York Academy of Medicine Grey Literature Report
  • [SIGLE]

data extraction

• most important and easily mistaken step