Assessing heterogeneity in meta-analysis: Q statistic or I� index?
TB Huedo-Medina, J S�nchez-Meca…�- Psychological�…, 2006 - psycnet.apa.org
Psychological methods, 2006•psycnet.apa.org
In meta-analysis, the usual way of assessing whether a set of single studies is
homogeneous is by means of the Q test. However, the Q test only informs meta-analysts
about the presence versus the absence of heterogeneity, but it does not report on the extent
of such heterogeneity. Recently, the I� index has been proposed to quantify the degree of
heterogeneity in a meta-analysis. In this article, the performances of the Q test and the
confidence interval around the I� index are compared by means of a Monte Carlo simulation�…
homogeneous is by means of the Q test. However, the Q test only informs meta-analysts
about the presence versus the absence of heterogeneity, but it does not report on the extent
of such heterogeneity. Recently, the I� index has been proposed to quantify the degree of
heterogeneity in a meta-analysis. In this article, the performances of the Q test and the
confidence interval around the I� index are compared by means of a Monte Carlo simulation�…
Abstract
In meta-analysis, the usual way of assessing whether a set of single studies is homogeneous is by means of the Q test. However, the Q test only informs meta-analysts about the presence versus the absence of heterogeneity, but it does not report on the extent of such heterogeneity. Recently, the I� index has been proposed to quantify the degree of heterogeneity in a meta-analysis. In this article, the performances of the Q test and the confidence interval around the I� index are compared by means of a Monte Carlo simulation. The results show the utility of the I� index as a complement to the Q test, although it has the same problems of power with a small number of studies.(PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
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