Explaining the forest plot in meta-analyses

Abstract

There has been huge growth in research evidence in the past few decades, and it is common for important issues in medical research, including those in wound care, to be addressed in multiple studies. This has led to the increasing prominence of systematic reviews in the culture of evidence-based medicine, which have taken their place at the very top of the hierarchy of evidence. Many readers will be familiar with meta-analyses: an integral part of many systematic reviews, and a process which can be described as a particular kind of review in itself, focussing on the numerical results. Central to the interpretation of meta-analyses is the forest plot, which presents findings from individual studies alongside an overall estimate. Properly interpreted, these plots can give useful insights into the overall pattern of study findings.

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