Member Training: Meta-analysis

Meta-analysis is the quantitative pooling of data from multiple studies. Meta-analysis done well has many strengths, including statistical power, precision in effect size estimates, and providing a summary of individual studies.

But not all meta-analyses are done well. The three threats to the validity of a meta-analytic finding are heterogeneity of study results, publication bias, and poor individual study quality.

The Meta-Analysis webinar with Steve Simon will introduce you to the major design issues that you must address in your research protocol to ensure that your meta-analysis will have credibility.

You will also learn some of the fundamental graphical and analytic tools used in meta-analysis: the forest plot, Cochran’s Q and I-squared, the funnel plot, and the L’Abbe plot.

You will compare the results from a fixed effects and a random effects model and understand the choices available for summary statistics.

Finally, you will see how to publish your results using best practices for meta-analysis: the PRISMA guidelines.


Note: This training is an exclusive benefit to members of the Statistically Speaking Membership Program and part of the Stat’s Amore Trainings Series. Each Stat’s Amore Training is approximately 90 minutes long.

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About the Instructor

Steve Simon works as an independent statistical consultant and as a part-time faculty member in the Department of Biomedical and Health Informatics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He has previously worked at Children’s Mercy Hospital, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and Bowling Green State University.

Steve has over 90 peer-reviewed publications, four of which have won major awards. He has written one book, Statistical Evidence in Medical Trials, and is the author of a major website about Statistics, Research Design, and Evidence Based Medicine, www.pmean.com. One of his current areas of interest is using Bayesian models to forecast patient accrual in clinical trials. Steve received a Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of Iowa in 1982.

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You'll get access to this training webinar, 130+ other stats trainings, a pathway to work through the trainings that you need — plus the expert guidance you need to build statistical skill with live Q&A sessions and an ask-a-mentor forum.

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