Analysing Data and Undertaking Meta-analyses Using RevMan 5 software

Assignment Task

Task

To conduct a meta-analysis of continuous data for an intervention of your choice using RevMan 5 software.

• The meta-analysis can be a fixed- or random-effect one but please justify your selection
• The meta-analysis could look at changes within a group (e.g., pre versus post) or the changes between groups (e.g., post - pre in the experimental group versus post - pre in the control group)

RevMan 5 Software (Section ii-3-4)

The primary piece of software used to create Cochrane Reviews is Cochrane’s own Review Manager (RevMan). RevMan is a free to use and should be used for this assessment. You can download a free version here (when asked why you need to use RevMan 5, click the “For Academic Use” button and submit). When running the software, you should run it in “non-Cochrane mode” .

RevMan 5 allows you to complete a full, written meta-analysis, YOU DO NOT NEED TO DO THIS!

You are required to present your meta-analyses and so should use RevMan 5 only to conduct the analysis itself ; however, the main steps outlined and covered in detail in the Handbook still need to be followed before you are able to conduct the analysis.

Background and Objectives (Section iii-3-2):

Although you are undertaking the meta-analysis as a form of assessment, you have free reign over the topic and so there should still be a justification for the review undertaken. Make sure that you include the following (see Handbook for more information):

1. Description of the condition
2. Description of the intervention
3. How the intervention might work
4. Why it is important to do this review

Methods (Section iii-3-3):

• Declare all criteria used to include and exclude studies (Chapter 3)
  • Consider Population, Intervention(s), Comparator(s) and Outcomes (PICO elements) as well as study design, publication status, and language
• Provide a comprehensive search method description (Chapter 4)
  • Consider sources, search strategies, and study selection
  • Provide a detailed description of how the data were to be collected (Chapter 5)
  • Comment on how data were to be collected, extracted, manipulated, and stored
  • For the purpose of this review, do not assess the risk of bias (although issues can be commented on)
• Provide sufficient information about how the treatment effect was to be measured
  • Comment on the approach(es) taken, as well as any issues that arose (e.g., unit of analysis issues, missing data) if appropriate
  • Describe how you assessed heterogeneity (Chapter 10) and potential non-reporting biases (Chapter 13)
  • Provide details of any subgroup analysis (if appropriate). If breaking down your main analysis into sub-group analysis (e.g., if you divide the data by sex) you should look at each sub-group in the same way as you looked at the overall dataset

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