Synthesizing Evidence from the Earliest Studies to Support Decision-Making: To What Extent Could the Evidence Be Reliable?

Autor/inn/en	Yu, Tianqi; Lin, Lifeng; Furuya-Kanamori, Luis; Xu, Chang
Titel	Synthesizing Evidence from the Earliest Studies to Support Decision-Making: To What Extent Could the Evidence Be Reliable?
Quelle	In: Research Synthesis Methods, 13 (2022) 5, S.632-644 (13 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Yu, Tianqi) ORCID (Lin, Lifeng) ORCID (Furuya-Kanamori, Luis) ORCID (Xu, Chang)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1759-2879
DOI	10.1002/jrsm.1587
Schlagwörter	Synthesis; Evidence; Decision Making; Reliability; Evidence Based Practice; Meta Analysis + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Evidenz; Decision-making; Entscheidungsfindung; Reliabilität; Meta-analysis; Metaanalyse
Abstract	In evidence-based practice, new topics generally only have a few studies available for synthesis. As a result, the evidence of such meta-analyses raised substantial concerns. We investigated the robustness of the evidence from these earliest studies. Real-world data from the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR) were collected. We emulated meta-analyses with the earliest 1 to 10 studies through cumulative meta-analysis from eligible meta-analyses. The magnitude and the direction of meta-analyses with the earliest few studies were compared to the full meta-analyses. From the CDSR, we identified 20,227 meta-analyses of binary outcomes and 7683 meta-analyses of continuous outcomes. Under the tolerable difference of 20% on the magnitude of the effects, the convergence proportion ranged from 24.24% (earliest 1 study) to 77.45% (earliest 10 studies) for meta-analyses of few earliest studies with binary outcomes. For meta-analyses of continuous outcomes, the convergence proportion ranged from 13.86% to 56.52%. In terms of the direction of the effects, even when only three studies were available at the earliest stage, the majority had the same direction as full meta-analyses; Only 19% for binary outcomes and 12% for continuous outcomes changed the direction as further evidence accumulated. Synthesizing evidence from the earliest studies is feasible to support urgent decision-making, and in most cases, the decisions would be reasonable. Considering the potential uncertainties, it is essential to evaluate the confidence of the evidence of these meta-analyses and update the evidence when necessary. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01