Funnel plot

A funnel plot is used to assess the presence of publication bias or other types of bias in systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

Publication bias occurs when studies with statistically significant results are more likely to be published than studies with non-significant or inconclusive results. This can lead to an overestimation of the true effect of a treatment or intervention.

• The x-axis often represents the size of the effect (for example, the difference in treatment outcomes between groups), or it could be the study's precision (the inverse of the standard error). In the provided image, it is labeled generically as "x-axis."
• The y-axis usually corresponds to the study size, precision, or standard error. The smaller the study, the greater the uncertainty around the effect size, which is reflected in the wider spread of points at the bottom of the funnel. In the image, it is labeled as "y-axis."

Let us understand the concept :

A funnel plot is like a graph you might see in a science class. Imagine you're looking at a dartboard where each dart is a different medical study. The darts are thrown at the dartboard that's laying flat on the ground. The horizontal line, or the ground...