The DOI matches its Crossref record; 7 of the 7 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Meta-analyses and Forest plots using a microsoft excel spreadsheet: step-by-step guide focusing on descriptive data analysis
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Meta-analyses are necessary to synthesize data obtained from primary research, and in many situations reviews of observational studies are the only available alternative. General purpose statistical packages can meta-analyze data, but usually require external macros or coding. Commercial specialist software is available, but may be expensive and focused in a particular type of primary data. Most available softwares have limitations in dealing with descriptive data, and the graphical display of summary statistics such as incidence and prevalence is unsatisfactory. Analyses can be conducted using Microsoft Excel, but there was no previous guide available. FINDINGS: We constructed a step-by-step guide to perform a meta-analysis in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, using either fixed-effect or random-effects models. We have also developed a second spreadsheet capable of producing customized forest plots. CONCLUSIONS: It is possible to conduct a meta-analysis using only Microsoft Excel. More important, to our knowledge this is the first description of a method for producing a statistically adequate but graphically appealing forest plot summarizing descriptive data, using widely available software.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Measuring inconsistency in meta-analyses
Higgins, J. P. T., Thompson, S. G., Deeks, J. J., & Altman, D. G. (2003) · BMJ · doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7414.557 · Cited by 63,139
Meta-analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology<SUBTITLE>A Proposal for Reporting</SUBTITLE>
Stroup, D. F. (2000) · JAMA · doi:10.1001/jama.283.15.2008 · Cited by 20,623
Borenstein, M., Hedges, L. V., Higgins, J. P. T., & Rothstein, H. R. (2009) · doi:10.1002/9780470743386 · Cited by 14,225
Borenstein, M., Hedges, L. V., Higgins, J. P. T., & Rothstein, H. R. (2021) · doi:10.1002/9781119558378 · Cited by 9,799
Systematic Reviews in Health Care: Meta‐Analysis in Context
(2001) · doi:10.1002/9780470693926 · Cited by 1,693
Bax, L., Yu, L.-M., Ikeda, N., Tsuruta, H., & Moons, K. G. (2006) · BMC Medical Research Methodology · doi:10.1186/1471-2288-6-50 · Cited by 514
Forest plots in reports of systematic reviews: a cross-sectional study reviewing current practice
Schriger, D. L., Altman, D. G., Vetter, J. A., Heafner, T., & Moher, D. (2010) · International Journal of Epidemiology · doi:10.1093/ije/dyp370 · Cited by 87 · cited 1×
“A recently published paper by Schriger et al [11] reviewed over 300 systematic reviews and highlighted important aspects of producing forest plots, which were considered in developing this approach.”
Background
Cited by
Social influence approaches to encourage resource conservation: a meta-analysis
Abrahamse, W., & Steg, L. (2013) · Global Environmental Change · doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2013.07.029 · Cited by 802
Franz, M. J., Boucher, J. L., Rutten-Ramos, S., & VanWormer, J. J. (2015) · Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics · doi:10.1016/j.jand.2015.02.031 · Cited by 672
The incidence and prevalence of psychiatric disorders in multiple sclerosis: A systematic review
Marrie, R. A., Reingold, S., Cohen, J., Stuve, O., Trojano, M., Sorensen, P. S., Cutter, G., & Reider, N. (2015) · Multiple Sclerosis Journal · doi:10.1177/1352458514564487 · Cited by 519
Al Maqbali, M., Al Sinani, M., & Al-Lenjawi, B. (2021) · Journal of Psychosomatic Research · doi:10.1016/j.jpsychores.2020.110343 · Cited by 501
Dialectical behavior therapy is effective for the treatment of suicidal behavior: A meta-analysis
DeCou, C. R., Comtois, K. A., & Landes, S. J. (2019) · Behavior Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.beth.2018.03.009 · Cited by 439
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and children's emotion dysregulation: A meta-analysis.
Graziano, P. A., & Garcia, A. (2016) · Clinical Psychology Review · doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2016.04.011 · Cited by 366
Maïano, C., Normand, C. L., Salvas, M., Moullec, G., & Aimé, A. (2016) · Autism Research · doi:10.1002/aur.1568 · Cited by 323
Prevalence of Fatigue in Patients With Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Al Maqbali, M., Al Sinani, M., Al Naamani, Z., Al Badi, K., & Tanash, M. I. (2021) · Journal of Pain and Symptom Management · doi:10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2020.07.037 · Cited by 288
Ros, R., & Graziano, P. A. (2018) · Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology · doi:10.1080/15374416.2016.1266644 · Cited by 277
Scholten, A. C., Haagsma, J. A., Cnossen, M. C., Olff, M., van Beeck, E. F., & Polinder, S. (2016) · Journal of Neurotrauma · doi:10.1089/neu.2015.4252 · Cited by 276
Spielmans, G. I., Berman, M. I., Linardatos, E., Rosenlicht, N. Z., Perry, A., & Tsai, A. C. (2013) · PLoS Medicine · doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001403 · Cited by 275
Mental health of extremely low birth weight survivors: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Mathewson, K. J., Chow, C. H. T., Dobson, K. G., Pope, E. I., Schmidt, L. A., & Van Lieshout, R. J. (2017) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/bul0000091 · Cited by 271
Church, J., & Maitland, K. (2014) · BMC Medicine · doi:10.1186/1741-7015-12-31 · Cited by 203
Association of trauma exposure with proinflammatory activity: a transdiagnostic meta-analysis
Tursich, M., Neufeld, R. W. J., Frewen, P. A., Harricharan, S., Kibler, J. L., Rhind, S. G., & Lanius, R. A. (2014) · Translational Psychiatry · doi:10.1038/tp.2014.56 · Cited by 204
The prevalence of technology-facilitated sexual violence: A meta-analysis and systematic review
Patel, U., & Roesch, R. (2022) · Trauma, Violence, & Abuse · doi:10.1177/1524838020958057 · Cited by 175
Prevalence of sleep disturbance in patients with cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Al Maqbali, M., Al Sinani, M., Alsayed, A., & Gleason, A. M. (2022) · Clinical Nursing Research · doi:10.1177/10547738221092146 · Cited by 167
Burden of allergic respiratory disease: a systematic review
Linneberg, A., Dam Petersen, K., Hahn-Pedersen, J., Hammerby, E., Serup-Hansen, N., & Boxall, N. (2016) · Clinical and Molecular Allergy · doi:10.1186/s12948-016-0049-9 · Cited by 151
Physical Activity after Stroke: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Field, M. J., Gebruers, N., Shanmuga Sundaram, T., Nicholson, S., & Mead, G. (2013) · ISRN Stroke · doi:10.1155/2013/464176 · Cited by 143
METACOHORTS Consortium, Dichgans, M., Wardlaw, J., Smith, E., Zietemann, V., Seshadri, S., Sachdev, P., Biessels, G. J., Fazekas, F., Benavente, O., et al. (2016) · Alzheimer's & Dementia · doi:10.1016/j.jalz.2016.06.004 · Cited by 101
Cramer, H., Haller, H., Dobos, G., & Lauche, R. (2016) · Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine · doi:10.1155/2016/5859729 · Cited by 105
Lew, J., Kim, J., & Nair, P. (2021) · Journal of Manual & Manipulative Therapy · doi:10.1080/10669817.2020.1822618 · Cited by 114
Psychotherapy Targeting Depression and Anxiety for Use in Palliative Care: A Meta-Analysis.
Fulton, J. J., Newins, A. R., Porter, L. S., & Ramos, K. (2018) · Journal of Palliative Medicine · doi:10.1089/jpm.2017.0576 · Cited by 97
The Impact of Prices and Taxes on the Use of Tobacco Products in Latin America and the Caribbean
Guindon, G. E., Paraje, G. R., & Chaloupka, F. J. (2015) · American Journal of Public Health · doi:10.2105/ajph.2014.302396 · Cited by 87
Distance-delivered interventions for PTSD: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Olthuis, J. V., Wozney, L., Asmundson, G. J. G., Cramm, H., Lingley-Pottie, P., & McGrath, P. J. (2016) · Journal of Anxiety Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2016.09.010 · Cited by 64
Kayrouz, R., Dear, B. F., Kayrouz, B., Karin, E., Gandy, M., & Titov, N. (2018) · Cognitive Behaviour Therapy · doi:10.1080/16506073.2018.1445124 · Cited by 33
Wilson, S. M., Newins, A. R., Medenblik, A. M., Kimbrel, N. A., Dedert, E. A., Hicks, T. A., Neal, L. C., Beckham, J. C., & Calhoun, P. S. (2018) · Women's Health Issues · doi:10.1016/j.whi.2018.05.002 · Cited by 20
Spielmans, G. I., Berman, M. I., Linardatos, E., Rosenlicht, N. Z., Perry, A., & Tsai, A. C. (2016) · Focus · doi:10.1176/appi.focus.140202 · Cited by 20
Meta-Analysis: Melatonin for the Treatment of Primary Sleep Disorders
Ferracioli-Oda, E., Qawasmi, A., & Bloch, M. H. (2018) · Focus · doi:10.1176/appi.focus.16101 · Cited by 18
Pituitary gland volumes in bipolar disorder
Clark, I. A., Mackay, C. E., & Goodwin, G. M. (2014) · Journal of Affective Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.jad.2014.08.022 · Cited by 15
Foulds, H. J. A., Rodgers, C. D., Duncan, V., & Ferguson, L. J. (2016) · Obesity Reviews · doi:10.1111/obr.12389 · Cited by 14
Metadata
- Authors
- Neyeloff, J. L., Fuchs, S. C., & Moreira, L. B.
- Venue
- BMC Research Notes
- Published
- 2012-01-20
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 52-52
- ISSN
- 1756-0500 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1989230896
- Cited by
- 727
- References
- 7
- FWCI
- 45.99
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
Data sources
Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
