Abstract

SANCHEZ-MECA, Julio; MARIN-MARTINEZ, Fulgencio  and  LOPEZ-LOPEZ, José Antonio. Meta-analysis and Evidence-Based Psychosocial Intervention. Psychosocial Intervention [online]. 2011, vol.20, n.1, pp.95-107. ISSN 2173-4712.  https://dx.doi.org/10.5093/in2011v20n1a8.

Psychosocial interventions that are applied in practice should be those that have received the best scientific evidence about their effectiveness. Evidence-Based Psychosocial Intervention is a methodological tool that aims to raise awareness among professionals and policy makers of the need for professional practice to be guided by the best evidence. For this purpose, systematic reviews and meta-analyses of empirical evaluation studies play an important role as they allow us to synthesize the results of numerous studies on the same issue to determine which are the best treatments and interventions for solving the problem. This article presents an overview of the meta-analyses and the information they can provide for professional practice. The phases in which a meta-analysis is carried out are outlined as follows: (a) formulating the problem, (b) searching for the studies, (c) coding the studies, (d) calculating the effect size, (e) statistical techniques of integration and (f) publishing the study. The scope of meta-analyses and their results are illustrated with an example and their implications for professional practice are discussed.

Keywords : effect size; Evidence-Based Practice; meta-analysis; systematic review.

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