“…Finally, the authors carried out a stratified analysis in the case of weight, BMI, and WC to explore the potential sources of between-study heterogeneity; however, the degree of heterogeneity remained high and statistically significant, for overweight (I 2 = 97.0; P < 0.001) and obese (I 2 = 98.0; P < 0.001) population subgroups, respectively. To find the source of between-study heterogeneity, further subgroup analysis on healthy subjects 4,5,9,11,12,14,19,24 and patients with dyslipidemia 7,10,13,18,20,22,25 could be performed, as well as on individual carotenoids, as previously suggested. In addition, a meta-regression based on the baseline values of the variables and the dosage of the carotenoid supplementation could provide an explanation for the observed between-study heterogeneity.…”