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Previous Volume 340:958-959 March 25, 1999 Number 12 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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Meta-analysis — the formal combination of the research results from multiple studies — is widely used, but with little general understanding of its limitations and uncertainties. There is something quite appealing about collecting all the available research on some question and reducing it to a single figure or a single confidence interval. When properly used, this approach can be useful. However, there is broad evidence that the results of meta-analyses are often not very reliable. LeLorier et al.¹ have shown that many meta-analyses do not agree with the results of subsequent large, randomized trials, and there is little reason to . . . [Full Text of this Article]

References

Related Letters:

Passive Smoking and Coronary Heart Disease
Swanson G. D., Denson K. W.E., Wells A. J., Jamrozik K., Colditz G. A., Fuster V., Greenland P., Liu K., Rabinoff M., He J., Hughes J., Whelton P. K., Bailar J. C.
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N Engl J Med 1999; 341:697-700, Aug 26, 1999. Correspondence

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