Dealing with substantial heterogeneity in Cochrane reviews. Cross-sectional study.

BMC Med Res Methodol · 2011 · PMC3056846 · PMID 21349195

Europe PMC DOI

hedged sentences

0.0070

closest p · 0.1× alpha

0.0500

boldest claim

The sentences

marginally statistically significantP = 0.007actually significant

The same pattern was evident for the subgroup of reviews with marginally statistically significant heterogeneity (P-value between 0.05 and 0.10, P = 0.007, Fisher's exact test).

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borderline significanceP = 0.05actually significant

Even so, we find it pretty bold that the authors believed in a result with borderline significance (P = 0.05), and only when using the fixed effect model, with so much heterogeneity, and with unexplained discrepancies between the results of the trials.

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Quoted from the open-access full text in Europe PMC under the licence the publisher applied. The sentence is reproduced exactly as published; the emphasis is ours.