You are seeing a cranky 4-year-old boy who has a low-grade fever and symptoms of an
upper respiratory tract injection. On examination he appears nontoxic but definitely has a left …

The metaanalysis by Rosenfeld et al., in this issue, examines the question of antimicrobial
efficacy in acute otitis media. Using standard methods of epidemiology and biostatistics, the …

Meta-analysis is a quantitative process of summary and interpretation which involves
pooling information from independent studies concerning a single theme in order to draw …

Physicians refer to the medical literature for the most current information about how to treat
their patients. How useful and reliable is the information they find? One difficulty is that the …

Meta-analysis has evolved as an alternative to the conventional narrative review. Its purpose
is to statistically analyze a large collection of results from multiple studies in order to …

To the Editor: Hoberman et al.(Jan. 13 issue) 1 report that antibiotics reduced “the time to
resolution of symptoms and reduced the overall symptom burden” in children with acute …

Meta-analysis has acquired a substantial following among both statisticians and clinicians.
The technique was developed as a way to summarize the results of different research …

Evidence-based health care is becoming increasingly popular and, at least in some settings,
is being used to assist in the creation of health care policy. 1 Meta-analyses are a key …

Results Use of antibiotics did not affect the fact that 60% of children were pain free within 24
hours of presentation. Two to 7 days after presentation only 14% of children taking placebo …

This article offers some guidelines for interpreting and evaluating meta-analytic reviews of
research. The fundamental goals of metaanalysis are to combine results across studies to …