Background
Cochrane systematic reviews collate and summarise studies of the effects of healthcare
interventions. The characteristics of these reviews and the meta-analyses and individual
studies they contain provide insights into the nature of healthcare research and important
context for the development of relevant statistical and other methods.
"Some of the more widely studied medical specialty areas in the CDSR include meta-analyses that are able to draw upon a wealth of studies, the largest
containing 294 [15], whilst 1% of meta-analyses contain 28 studies or more. Among the 11 specialty categories
we used, cancer had a slightly higher median number of included studies (5) than any
of the other categories."
"Study sizes show notable variation across medical specialties. The medians and quartiles
are highest in
cancer, and high also for meta-analyses in the areas of infectious
diseases and
gynaecology, pregnancy and birth. Study sizes tend to be lower in the
areas of mental health and behavioural conditions and pathological conditions, symptoms
and signs."
