Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Identifying null meta-analyses that are ripe for updating.

Nicholas J Barrowman1, Manchun Fang, Margaret Sampson

  • 1Chalmers Research Group, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada. nbarrowman@cheo.on.ca

BMC Medical Research Methodology
|July 25, 2003
PubMed
Summary

New methods help determine if meta-analyses are outdated. The "new participant ratio" predicts if new studies could overturn non-significant results, aiding systematic review teams in resource allocation for updates.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

The Changing Landscape of Journalology in Medicine.

Seminars in nuclear medicine·2019
Same author

Systematic reviews in restorative dentistry: discussing relevant aspects.

Journal of esthetic and restorative dentistry : official publication of the American Academy of Esthetic Dentistry ... [et al.]·2019
Same author

CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne·2019
Same author

Guidance for reporting outcomes in clinical trials: scoping review protocol.

BMJ open·2019
Same author

Systematic reviews in dentistry: Current status, epidemiological and reporting characteristics.

Journal of dentistry·2019
Same author

Screening for depression in women during pregnancy or the first year postpartum and in the general adult population: a protocol for two systematic reviews to update a guideline of the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care.

Systematic reviews·2019

Area of Science:

  • Biostatistics
  • Medical Research Methodology

Background:

  • The growing volume of meta-analyses necessitates methods to assess their timeliness.
  • Clinicians and systematic review teams require tools to identify outdated meta-analyses.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To develop and evaluate quantitative methods for detecting potentially outdated meta-analyses.
  • To introduce a metric for predicting when non-significant meta-analytic results might be overturned by new research.

Main Methods:

  • Proposed novel methods to predict the number of participants needed in new studies to achieve statistical significance.
  • Introduced the "new participant ratio" to compare actual new participant numbers to predicted requirements.
  • Conducted simulation studies and utilized a real meta-analysis to evaluate method performance.

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

  • The diagnostic test for outdated meta-analyses demonstrated varying sensitivity (55%, 62%, 49%) across three simulation configurations.
  • Corresponding specificity ranged from 80% to 90% in the simulations.
  • The proposed methods showed promise in identifying meta-analyses that may no longer be current.

Conclusions:

  • Simulation results indicate the developed methods can effectively detect outdated meta-analyses.
  • These approximate methods offer a potential solution for systematic review teams to efficiently allocate resources for meta-analysis updates.
  • Further research and validation are needed before widespread adoption of these methods.