Understanding Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses in a Physiotherapeutic Context

Background: Practicing physiotherapists are increasingly expected to work evidence-based. This requires that they continuously catch up with the latest research findings. Due to the annually growing number of new publications predominantly in the field of (randomised) clinical studies health care professionals have time problems to keep up with the actual state of knowledge alongside with their daily practice. Systematic literature studies and meta-analyses can efficiently counteract this growing information overflow. Objective/Method: This article adjusts background information and the systematics of systematic literature studies and meta-analyses to a physiotherapeutically comprehensible context. Results: Meta-analyses generate a systematic and quantitative method of consolidating evident results of individual comparable studies in order to answer important (physiotherapeutic) questions. Conclusion: With a view towards evidence-based therapeutic management the ability of reading and critically interpreting meta-analyses is very important for practising physiotherapists.