PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Sara Balduzzi
AU  - Gerta Rücker
AU  - Guido Schwarzer
TI  - How to perform a meta-analysis with R: a practical tutorial
AID  - 10.1136/ebmental-2019-300117
DP  - 2019 Nov 01
TA  - Evidence Based Mental Health
PG  - 153--160
VI  - 22
IP  - 4
4099  - http://mentalhealth.bmj.com//content/22/4/153.short
4100  - http://mentalhealth.bmj.com//content/22/4/153.full
SO  - Evid Based Ment Health2019 Nov 01; 22
AB  - Objective Meta-analysis is of fundamental importance to obtain an unbiased assessment of the available evidence. In general, the use of meta-analysis has been increasing over the last three decades with mental health as a major research topic. It is then essential to well understand its methodology and interpret its results. In this publication, we describe how to perform a meta-analysis with the freely available statistical software environment R, using a working example taken from the field of mental health.Methods R package meta is used to conduct standard meta-analysis. Sensitivity analyses for missing binary outcome data and potential selection bias are conducted with R package metasens. All essential R commands are provided and clearly described to conduct and report analyses.Results The working example considers a binary outcome: we show how to conduct a fixed effect and random effects meta-analysis and subgroup analysis, produce a forest and funnel plot and to test and adjust for funnel plot asymmetry. All these steps work similar for other outcome types.Conclusions R represents a powerful and flexible tool to conduct meta-analyses. This publication gives a brief glimpse into the topic and provides directions to more advanced meta-analysis methods available in R.