Introduction to meta-analysis in Review Manager

(RevMan).Ewelina Rogozinska

CT Data Assistant/ResearcherWomen's Health Research Unit

The systematic review process

Formulate research /

policy conclusions

Search bibliographi

c databases

Identify possible papers

from titles/abstracts

Retrieve papers

Extract data

Further selection of

primary studies using inclusion

criteria

Formulate

research question

Design search

strategy

Quality

appraisal Synthesi

s

Session overview1. Brief introduction

• What do we use RevMan for?

• Setting up RevMan file 2. Practical part

• Adding studies

• Add outcome

• Data entry

• Conducting meta-analysis

• Add new comparison

• Introducing subgroups

• Generating plots and graphs

Introduction to meta-analysis in RevManEwelina Rogozinska

• Review Manager (RevMan) - software used for preparing and maintaining Cochrane Reviews.

• You can use RevMan for protocols and full reviews.

• It is most useful when you have formulated the question for the

review

and allows you to:

• prepare the text,

• build the tables showing the characteristics of studies and the

comparisons in the review,

• add study data,

• perform meta-analyses and

• present the results graphically.

• It can be downloaded from Cochrane web page http://

ims.cochrane.org/revman

Working with RevMan

Tasks

1. Add two new studies: Mardones 2007 and Zhou 2012

2. Add new outcome ‘Birth weight (g)’ under comparison ‘Fish oils’ and specify:

• Type of data: continuous

• Analysis model: random

• Effect measure: mean difference

• Analysis details: totals and subtotals

• Graph details

3. To outcome ‘Birth weight (g)’ add studies: Mardones 2007 and Zhou 2012

4. Transfer earlier extracted data for birth weight from these two studies

Introduction to meta-analysis in RevManEwelina Rogozinska

Tasks 5. Create new comparison ‘Diet and fish oils’ and specify:

• Type of data: dichotomous

• Stat method: Mantel-Haenszel

• Analysis model: random

• Effect measure: Risk Ratio

• Analysis details: totals and subtotals

• Graph details: scale 10.0

6. Add studies and create two subgroups:

• First: diet

• Second: fish oils

7. For outcome ‘Pre-eclampsia (PET)’ generate:

• Forest plot;

• Funnel plot

• Risk of bias graph

Introduction to meta-analysis in RevManEwelina Rogozinska