Table 4

Meta-analysis of all trials and high-quality trials from evidence-based practice guidelines

Practice Guideline

Colon Cancer Adjuvant chemotherapy Outcome: Mortality (32)

Head & Neck Concomitant therapy Outcome: Mortality (31)

Systemic Therapy erythropoietin Outcome: need for blood transfusion (34)

All Studies

# studies (# comparisons)

11 (11)

18 (20)

15 (15)

OR (CI)

0.82 (0.62 – 1.09)

0.62 (0.54 – 0.72)

0.57 (0.47–0.70)

High Quality Studies By Assessment Scale Criteria

Jadad (3-item) range = 0–5 criteria >2

# studies (# comparisons)

0

2 (2)

not applied

OR (CI)

-

0.54 (0.34 – 0.86)

Jadad (6-item) range = 0–8 criteria >3

# studies (# comparisons)

8 (8)

13 (14)

9 (9)

OR (CI)

0.88 (0.69–1.13)

0.53 (0.44 – 0.64)

0.57 (0.44–0.72)

Sindhu (41-item) range = 0–79.5 criteria > 44.8

# studies (# comparisons)

9 (9)

11 (12)

not applied

OR (CI)

0.86 (0.68–1.09)

0.62 (0.49 – 0.79)

Downs & Black (13-item) range = 0–13 criteria > 7

# studies (# comparisons)

6 (6)

12 (14)

not applied

OR (CI)

0.86 (0.59–1.25)

0.56 (0.46 – 0.68)

OR, odds ratio; CI, 95% confidence interval

Brouwers et al. BMC Medical Research Methodology 2005 5:8   doi:10.1186/1471-2288-5-8