Heterogeneity: the issue of apples, oranges and fruit pie
- PMID: 22670409
- DOI: 10.1017/s2045796011000643
Heterogeneity: the issue of apples, oranges and fruit pie
Abstract
Heterogeneity refers to any kind of variation among studies contributing to the same outcome in a systematic review. There are three broad types of heterogeneity: clinical heterogeneity, methodological heterogeneity and statistical heterogeneity. In this paper, we describe these three types of heterogeneity and the main statistical approaches to measure heterogeneity.