Qi XS, Yang ZP, Bai M, Wang YJ. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses: Why are they clinically significant? World J Meta-Anal 2015; 3(3): 139-141 [DOI: 10.13105/wjma.v3.i3.139]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Dr. Xing-Shun Qi, Department of Gastroenterology, General Hospital of Shenyang Military Area, 83 WenHua Road, Shenhe District, Shenyang 110840, Liaoning Province, China. xingshunqi@126.com
Research Domain of This Article
Health Care Sciences & Services
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Meta-Anal. Jun 26, 2015; 3(3): 139-141 Published online Jun 26, 2015. doi: 10.13105/wjma.v3.i3.139
Systematic reviews and meta-analyses: Why are they clinically significant?
Xing-Shun Qi, Zhi-Ping Yang, Ming Bai, Yong-Ji Wang
Xing-Shun Qi, Zhi-Ping Yang, Ming Bai, Evidence-Based Medicine Group, Xijing Hospital of Digestive Diseases, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an 710000, Shaanxi Province, China
Xing-Shun Qi, Department of Gastroenterology, General Hospital of Shenyang Military Area, Shenyang 110840, Liaoning Province, China
Ming Bai, Department of Nephrology, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an 710000, Shaanxi Province, China
Yong-Ji Wang, Medical Department, 309th Hospital of Chinese People’s Liberation Army, Beijing 100000, China
Yong-Ji Wang, Department of Health Statistics, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an 710000, Shaanxi Province, China
Author contributions: Qi XS conceived this work and drafted the manuscript; Yang ZP, Bai M and Wang YJ gave critical comments and revised the manuscript; all the authors have made an intellectual contribution to the manuscript and approved the submission.
Conflict-of-interest: All authors disclosed no conflicts of interest regarding this work.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Xing-Shun Qi, Department of Gastroenterology, General Hospital of Shenyang Military Area, 83 WenHua Road, Shenhe District, Shenyang 110840, Liaoning Province, China. xingshunqi@126.com
Telephone: +86-24-28851113
Received: January 7, 2015 Peer-review started: January 8, 2015 First decision: February 7, 2015 Revised: February 24, 2015 Accepted: May 26, 2015 Article in press: May 27, 2015 Published online: June 26, 2015
Abstract
This review aims to clarify the clinical significance of systematic reviews and meta-analyses by illustrating several classical examples. Firstly, systematic reviews can provide the highest level of evidence for clinical decisions. Secondly, systematic reviews can propose unresolved issues and future directions. Thirdly, systematic reviews can avoid harm to the human body. Fourthly, systematic reviews can prevent a waste of resources. Generally speaking, clinical researchers should be encouraged to perform systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
Core tip: Systematic reviews and meta-analyses are very important for clinicians and investigators because they can provide the highest level of evidence for clinical decisions, propose unresolved issues and future directions, avoid harm to the human body and prevent a waste of resources.
