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Statistical Methods in Medical Research

2009; Deutscher Ärzte-Verlag; Linguagem: Inglês

10.3238/arztebl.2009.0099

1866-0452

Jean–Baptist du Prel, Bernd Röhrig, Maria Blettner,

Meta-analysis and systematic reviews

Medical, especially patient-centered research is held to high ethical, legal, methodological, and scientific standards. The purpose of patient-centered research is to improve patient care, and increasingly, evidence for the efficacy of diagnostic and therapeutic interventions is required. Evidence-based medicine means that treatment decisions should be based on data arising from convincing, methodologically sound studies, and no longer simply on individual clinicians’ experience and preferences. Clinical guidelines are based on this type of evidence, and include the declaration of levels of evidence. The highest levels of evidence are attained by meta-analyses of published data from controlled trials, followed by published results from individual multicenter, randomized, controlled studies. In order to make a judgment about the relevance of research results for patients, clinicians need to understand the design and analysis of a study, as well as its strengths and limitations.