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A simple confidence interval for meta‐analysis
Author(s) -
Sidik Kurex,
Jonkman Jeffrey N.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
statistics in medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.996
H-Index - 183
eISSN - 1097-0258
pISSN - 0277-6715
DOI - 10.1002/sim.1262
Subject(s) - confidence interval , simple (philosophy) , statistics , context (archaeology) , coverage probability , mathematics , computation , cdf based nonparametric confidence interval , computer science , confidence distribution , algorithm , paleontology , philosophy , epistemology , biology
In the context of a random effects model for meta‐analysis, a number of methods are available to estimate confidence limits for the overall mean effect. A simple and commonly used method is the DerSimonian and Laird approach. This paper discusses an alternative simple approach for constructing the confidence interval, based on the t‐distribution. This approach has improved coverage probability compared to the DerSimonian and Laird method. Moreover, it is easy to calculate, and unlike some methods suggested in the statistical literature, no iterative computation is required. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.