The Essentials of Meta-Analysis: A Perspective for the Educator and Clinician provides an overview of the advantages of undertaking a meta-analysis, rather than a traditional narrative review, when evaluating the findings of multiple studies. The DVD explores the fact that narrative reviews typically synthesize research via vote counting (i.e. significant and nonsignificant findings are contrasted), a process that seldom produces a correct result because nonsignificant P-values are used to define “no effect†without consideration for a study's effect size or statistical power. In turn, the DVD looks at the fact that meta-analysis quantitatively combines studies and calculates an overall effect. As such, the DVD explains why metaanalysis is an extension of the systematic review and is appropriate when sufficient data is available from primary studies.
