How Do Clinicians Understand Meta-analysis

Meta-analysis is an important method of systematic review. With the development of evidence-based medicine, there are more and more meta-analysis published. Reading and interpreting meta-analysis becomes one of the important methods for obtaining cutting-edge information. Mastering meta-analysis is essential for physicians in clinical work and research. We explained the forest plot, chart of bias evaluation, and funnel plot in detail through examples in this article. Moreover, we introduced the evaluation method of heterogeneity, robustness, and sample size to assess whether the results of the meta-analysis are reliable and can be applied to the clinical practice, in order to help physicians to correctly grasp the interpretation methods of meta-analysis.