Systematische reviews und meta-analysen - Eine einführung

In the last three decades systematic review and meta-analysis have become the standard methods for research synthesis. A review is considered systematic if it is investigating the available evidence on a clearly defined topic with systematic and predefined methods. A meta-analysis is a systematic review in which the results of included primary studies are statistically integrated to yield a single effect estimate. This article presents a short introduction into how such reviews are performed and how they can be appraised critically.