MetaEasy: A Meta-Analysis Add-In for Microsoft Excel

Abstract

Meta-analysis is a statistical methodology that combines or integrates the results of several independent clinical trials considered by the analyst to be 'combinable' (Huque 1988). However, completeness and user-friendliness are uncommon both in specialised meta-analysis software packages and in mainstream statistical packages that have to rely on user-written commands. We implemented the meta-analysis methodology in an Microsoft (Excel) add-in which is freely available and incorporates more meta-analysis models (including the iterative maximum likelihood and profile likelihood) than are usually available, while paying particular attention to the user-friendliness of the package.