Short Courses
Lecturer: Aurelio Tobías, PhD
Biographical note:
Aurelio Tobías
Senior Scientist at the Spanish Scientific Research Council in Barcelona and Visiting Research Fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He has a long professional experience as medical statistician, as well as teaching epidemiological data analysis at postgraduate level. Dr. Tobías is a regular collaborator teaching meta-analysis courses at the Iberoamerican Cochrane Centre in Spain, Portugal and South America.
Organizers:
Pedro Oliveira , Denisa Mendonça
Course description
Meta-analysis is the statistical technique to combine the findings from independent studies. The aim of this one-day course is to introduce in a friendly and easy way the main statistical techniques for meta-analysis and demonstrates, in a practical way, how to use Stata commands designed for this purpose.
However, the course do not cover the systematic review since it is a lengthy process that includes formulating a research problem, searching the literature, deciding which studies to include in the synthesis, and then performing the statistical analysis.
This course focuses only on this last step, the meta-analysis, delivered mainly using the Stata commands metan and metareg.
Course outline
9:00 to 9:30 Introduction to the systematic review process.
9:30 to 10:30 Effect sizes based on binary and continuous.
10:30 to 11:00 Coffee break.
11:00 to 12:00 Fixed vs. random effects models for meta-analysis.
12:00 to 12:30 Testing and quantifying heterogeneity.
12:30 to 13:30 Lunch break.
13:30 to 15:00 Explaining heterogeneity: subgroup meta-analysis and meta-regression.
15:00 to 15:15 Coffee break.
15:15 to 18:00 Practical exercises using Stata.
Participants
The course is intended for researchers, physicians, clinicians, public health professionals, epidemiologists and biostatisticians, from public and private institutions who need to apply meta-analysis. Previous experience with systematic reviews and familiarity with Stata would be desired.
Readings
Greenhalgh T. Papers that summarise other papers. Br Med J 1997; 315: 672-5.
Borenstein M, Hedges LV, Higgins JPT, Rothstein HR. A basic introduction to fixed-effect and random-effects models for meta-analysis. Res Syn Meth. 2010: 1; 97-111.
Sterne JAC. Meta-analysis in Stata: An Updated Collection from the Stata Journal. 2nd Edition. Stata Press: College Station, TX, 2016.
Language: English
Tuition Fee:
Course 1: Introduction to Meta-analysis with Stata
Fee: 100€; Reduced Fee: 80€
Combined Registration (Course 1 + Course 2)
Fee: 225€; Reduced Fee: 200€
Reduced Fees:
- Members of ‘Sociedade Portuguesa de Estatística’ e ‘Associação Portuguesa de Epidemiologia’
- Students from Public Health MSc and PhD
- Students from Global Public Health PhD
- Students from Applied Maths and Mat PDMA PhD
- Students from Public Health Internships
