Introduction Systematic reviews and meta-analyses provide an objective and reliable way of summarising trial results, and can inform both clinical practice and the design, conduct and reporting of trials. However, those based on aggregate data are sometimes limited by the availability of such data, while those based on more comprehensive individual participant data (IPD) can provide more detail...

BACKGROUND Evidence for medical interventions sometimes derives from data that are no longer up to date. These data can influence the outcomes of meta-analyses, yet do not always reflect current clinical practice. We examined the age of the data used in meta-analyses contained within systematic reviews of medical interventions, and investigated whether authors consider the age of these data in ...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Systematic reviews are important knowledge generating tools to help the decision making process in the Critical Care Unit. This narrative aims to describe the important elements used to critically appraise intensive care-related systematic reviews. CONTENTS When critically assessing systematic reviews, one should pay particular attention to the importance and appropr...

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses, as already reported in the opening article of this section, are the highest level of scientific evidence1 and may strengthen clinically useful evidence.2 That means that, according to evidence-based Dentistry, clinically significant results found in clinical and laboratorial researches will be incorporated in clinical practice, especially in dependence on c...

With the current emphasis on making “evidence-based policy,” criminal justice policymakers today are under more pressure to use research in their decision making. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses can provide policymakers with reliable and comprehensive evidence about what works to reduce crime or improve justice. It is important that decision makers become more familiar with this method. In...

This study is the first known to use network meta-analysis to simultaneously evaluate the effectiveness of interventions to increase the prevalence of functioning smoke alarms in households with children. The authors identified 24 primary studies from a systematic review of reviews and of more recently published primary studies, of which 23 (17 randomized controlled trials and 6 nonrandomized c...

Copyright © 2016 The Korean Society of Radiology As a research synthesis methodology, systematic review and meta-analysis generates an evidence-based systematic summary of a specific topic by objectively evaluating all relevant primary studies available in the literature. Metaanalysis is a part of the methodology and uses statistical methods to integrate the results of primary research studies....

Background: In traditional medicine and recent years, nerve stimulation has been introduced as a replacement therapy for managing several disorders such as overactive bladder. However, there is still controversy in this regard. Therefore, the present meta-analysis aimed to assess the effectiveness of electrical nerve stimulation in treatment of overactive bladder.Methods: The present systematic...