Application of Stata software to test heterogeneity in Meta-analysis method / 中华流行病学杂志

ABSTRACT

To introduce the application of Stata software to heterogeneity test in meta-analysis.A data set was set up according to the example in the study,and the corresponding commands of the methods in Stata 9 software were applied to test the example.The methods used were Q-test and Ⅰ2statistic attached to the fixed effect model forest plot,H statistic and Galbraith plot.The existence of the heterogeneity among studies could he detected hy Q-test and H statistic and the degree of the heterogeneity could be detected by,Ⅰ2 statistic.The outliers which were the sources of the heterogeneity could be spotted from the Galbraith plot.Heterogeneity test in Meta-analysis can be completed by the four methods in Stata software simply and quickly.H and Ⅰ2 statistics are more robust,and the outliers of the heterogeneity can be clearly seen in the Galbraith plot among the four methods.