Meta-Analysis: A systematic review that uses quantitative methods to synthesize & summarize results.
Systematic Review: A summary of the medical literature that uses explicit methods to perform a
comprehensive literature search & critical appraisal of individual studies.
Randomized Controlled Trial: Participants are randomly allocated into experimental or control groups &
are followed over time for the variables/outcomes of interest.
Cohort Study: Identifies participants who currently have a certain condition or receive a treatment and are
followed over time & compared with another group of people who are not affected by the condition.
Case Control Study: Identifies participants who have a certain outcome (cases) & participants without that
outcome (controls).
Case Report/Case Series: A report on one or more participants with a particular outcome.
(Adapted from CEBM - Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine)
