Table of Contents

Preface xix

Tribute xxi

List of Contributors xxviii

About the Companion Website xxxiii

CHAPTER 1 Systematic Reviews in Health Research: An Introduction 1
Matthias Egger, Julian P.T. Higgins, and George Davey Smith

PART I Principles and Procedures 17

CHAPTER 2 Principles of Systematic Reviewing 19
Julian P.T. Higgins, George Davey Smith, Douglas G. Altman, and Matthias Egger

CHAPTER 3 Identifying Randomized Controlled Trials 36
Julie Glanville and Carol Lefebvre

CHAPTER 4 Assessing the Risk of Bias in Randomized Trials 55
Matthew J. Page, Douglas G. Altman, and Matthias Egger

CHAPTER 5 Investigating and Dealing with Publication Bias and Other Reporting Biases 74
Matthew J. Page, Jonathan A.C. Sterne, Julian P.T. Higgins, and Matthias Egger

CHAPTER 6 Managing People and Data 91
Eliane Rohner, Julia Bohlius, Bruno R. da Costa, and Sven Trelle

CHAPTER 7 Reporting and Appraisal of Systematic Reviews 109
Larissa Shamseer, Beverley Shea, Brian Hutton, and David Moher

PART II Meta-Analysis 129

CHAPTER 8 Effect Measures 131
Julian P.T. Higgins, Jonathan J. Deeks, and Douglas G. Altman

CHAPTER 9 Combining Results Using Meta-Analysis 159
Jonathan J. Deeks, Richard D. Riley, and Julian P.T. Higgins

CHAPTER 10 Exploring Heterogeneity 185
Julian P.T. Higgins and Tianjing Li

CHAPTER 11 Dealing with Missing Outcome Data in Meta-Analysis 204
Ian R. White and Dimitris Mavridis

CHAPTER 12 Individual Participant Data Meta-Analysis 220
Mark C. Simmonds and Lesley A. Stewart

CHAPTER 13 Network Meta-Analysis 238
Georgia Salanti and Julian P.T. Higgins

CHAPTER 14 Dose-Response Meta-Analysis 258
Nicola Orsini, Susanna C. Larsson, and Georgia Salanti

PART III Specific Study Designs 271

CHAPTER 15 Systematic Reviews of Nonrandomized Studies of Interventions 273
Jelena Savovic, Penny F. Whiting, and Olaf M. Dekkers

CHAPTER 16 Systematic Reviews of Diagnostic Accuracy 296
Yemisi Takwoingi and Jonathan J. Deeks

CHAPTER 17 Systematic Reviews of Prognostic Factor Studies 324
Richard D. Riley, Karel G.M. Moons, Douglas G. Altman, Gary S. Collins, and Thomas P.A. Debray

CHAPTER 18 Systematic Reviews of Prediction Models 347
Gary S. Collins, Karel G.M. Moons, Thomas P.A. Debray, Douglas G. Altman, and Richard D. Riley

CHAPTER 19 Systematic Reviews of Epidemiological Studies of Etiology and Prevalence 377
Matthias Egger, Diana Buitrago-Garcia, and George Davey Smith

CHAPTER 20 Meta-Analysis in Genetic Association Studies 396
Gibran Hemani

PART IV Cochrane and Guideline Development 413

CHAPTER 21 Cochrane: Trusted Evidence. Informed Decisions. Better Health 415
Gerd Antes, David Tovey, and Nancy Owens

CHAPTER 22 Using Systematic Reviews in Guideline Development: The GRADE Approach 424
Holger J. Schünemann

PART V Outlook 449

CHAPTER 23 Innovations in Systematic Review Production 451
Julian Elliott and Tari Turner

CHAPTER 24 Future for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis 463
Shah Ebrahim and Mark D. Huffman

PART VI Software 481

CHAPTER 25 Meta-Analysis in Stata 483
David J. Fisher, Marcel Zwahlen, Matthias Egger, and Julian P.T. Higgins

CHAPTER 26 Meta-Analysis in R 510
Guido Schwarzer

CHAPTER 27 Comprehensive Meta-Analysis Software 535
Michael Borenstein

Index 549

About the Author

Matthias Egger is Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at the Institute for Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM), University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland and the Centre for Infectious Diseases Epidemiology and Research, University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Julian P.T. Higgins is Professor of Evidence Synthesis at Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.

George Davey Smith is Professor of Clinical Epidemiology and Director of the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit at the University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.