Metaanalys
Course content
Meta-analysis is a specific form of literature review in which a statistical synthesis of quantitative data obtained from a set of studies is performed. The aim of this course is to provide an introduction to the theory and practical issues of performing a meta-analysis. This course will start with two weeks of lectures and seminars introducing the general concepts and theory of meta-analysis. During this period the students will deliver two assignments, a critique of a published meta-analysis and a proposal of their own meta-analysis, specifying research question, hypothesis, search terms and inclusion criteria. The course will be followed by six weeks of lectures in which practical aspects of meta-analysis will be introduced, including analysis and reporting, and workshops in which students will apply such concepts in their own data. The course concludes with a written report of the meta-analysis the students develop.
The following themes are included in the lectures:
- Benefits of meta-analysis compared to other forms of data synthesis/critically evaluate meta-analysis.
- Effect sizes, means and variances.
- Literature search/inclusion criteria/evaluating primarily literature.
- Data extraction/dealing with missing data.
- Publication biases.
- Fixed and random effects/estimating heterogeneity.
- Non-independence/hierarchical models.
- Meta-regression.
- Visualization/reporting of meta-analysis.