Simulations for Meta-analysis of Magnitude Measures

Abstract: Meta-analysis aims to combine effect measures from several studies. For continuous outcomes, the most popular effect measures use simple or standardized differences in sample means. However, a number of applications focus on the absolute values of these effect measures (i.e., unsigned magnitude effects). We provide statistical methods for meta-analysis of magnitude effects based on standardized mean differences. We propose a suitable statistical model for random-effects meta-analysis of absolute standardized mean differences (ASMD), investigate a number of statistical methods for point and interval estimation, and provide practical recommendations for choosing among them.