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Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2004;158:595-597.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Meta-analysis is a quantitative method of summarizing the results of several studies. One goal of meta-analysis is to estimate the size of the pooled association between a treatment or exposure and an outcome. This pooled association, or effect can be used to judge the clinical or public health impact of the exposure. A second goal is to seek evidence that the association varies according to the level of some other factor. This is often done using formal statistical tests of the hypothesis that the associations in the different studies are similar (homogeneous). A third goal is to estimate a variance so that the precision of the pooled association estimate may be judged using a confidence interval.

STANDARDIZED EFFECTS

Sometimes studies report results using different measurements of the same outcome. For example, the outcome might be pain or mental state or respiratory function, but the studies used different pain scales, mental health scales, . . . [Full Text of this Article]

AN EXAMPLE

SUGGESTIONS
Peter Cummings, MD, MPH
Department of Epidemiology
University of Washington
250 Grandview Dr
Bishop, CA 93514
(e-mail: peterc@u.washington.edu)

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