Clinical microbiology and infection : the official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases
-
Clin. Microbiol. Infect. · Feb 2014
Review Meta AnalysisThe effects of clinical and statistical heterogeneity on the predictive values of results from meta-analyses.
Variance between studies in a meta-analysis will exist. This heterogeneity may be of clinical, methodological or statistical origin. The last of these is quantified by the I(2) -statistic. ⋯ With low I(2) -values and unknown levels of heterogeneity, predictive values of pooled estimates may range extensively, and findings should be interpreted with caution. In conclusion, quantifying statistical heterogeneity through I(2) -statistics is only helpful when the amount of clinical heterogeneity is unknown and I(2) is high. Objective methods to quantify the levels of clinical and methodological heterogeneity are urgently needed to allow reliable determination of the accuracy of meta-analyses.