IntroductionThe aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the difference between a traditional meta-analysis and a mega-analysis of individual patient data when combining observational studies.
Materials and methodsWe used data from two studies that evaluated the risk of fracture in patients with multiple sclerosis using the British General Practice Research Database and the Danish National Health Registries. The published results were pooled together in an inverse-variance fixed effect metaanalysis. Using patient level data, we made the study populations as comparable as possible regarding the index date, calendar time, selection of incident/prevalent patient and follow-up. The individual patient data of these populations were combined
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