Peabody Research Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37203, USA.
Current affiliation: Department of Counseling Psychology and Human Services, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403-1215, USA; email:
Annu Rev Public Health. 2018 Apr 1;39:135-151. doi: 10.1146/annurev-publhealth-040617-014112. Epub 2018 Jan 12.
Meta-analysis is a prominent method for estimating the effects of public health interventions, yet these interventions are often complex in ways that pose challenges to using conventional meta-analytic methods. This article discusses meta-analytic techniques that can be used in research syntheses on the effects of complex public health interventions. We first introduce the use of complexity frameworks to conceptualize public health interventions. We then present a menu of meta-analytic procedures for addressing various sources of complexity when answering questions about the effects of public health interventions in research syntheses. We conclude with a review of important practices and key resources for conducting meta-analyses on complex interventions, as well as future directions for research synthesis more generally. Overall, we argue that it is possible to conduct meaningful quantitative syntheses of research on the effects of public health interventions, though these meta-analyses may require the use of advanced techniques to properly consider and attend to issues of complexity.
元分析是一种估算公共卫生干预措施效果的重要方法，但这些干预措施通常很复杂，给使用传统元分析方法带来了挑战。本文讨论了可用于复杂公共卫生干预措施效果研究综合评价的元分析技术。我们首先介绍了使用复杂性框架来概念化公共卫生干预措施。然后，我们提出了一套元分析程序，用于在研究综合评价中回答有关公共卫生干预措施效果的问题时，解决各种来源的复杂性。最后，我们回顾了进行复杂干预措施元分析的重要实践和关键资源，以及更广泛的研究综合的未来方向。总的来说，我们认为可以对公共卫生干预措施效果的研究进行有意义的定量综合，但这些元分析可能需要使用先进的技术来正确考虑和处理复杂性问题。
