A web-based information system for cumulative and recursive cumulative meta-analysis of genetic association studies

Abstract

Cumulative meta-analysis follows a methodical rather than a statistical approach, to show evolutions over time. Cumulative meta-analysis includes repeated meta-analyses over time of newly published studies on the research question. Thus, a meta-analysis is conducted each time a new study is published, and the pooled estimates and confidence intervals from all the meta-analyses are graphically displayed in chronological sequence. In this way, retrospectively it is possible to determine the point in time from which a statistically significant effect becomes apparent. Recursive cumulative meta-analyses find changes in the common estimator by performing a meta-analysis of the chronologically arranged papers at the conclusion of each year. The strong assumption of a delay bias (“lag time bias”) is supported by an ever-declining effect. Although there are a number of software programs that perform meta-analysis, none of them have been expressly created for genetic association studies, and using them frequently necessitates advanced programming or scripting skills. Of course, they are unable to do cumulative and recursive cumulative meta-analyses. We developed Genetical Evidence SYNthesis (GESYN), a web-application for cumulative and recursive cumulative meta-analysis of Genetic association studies (GAS). GESYN can be run in an environment that is easy to use.11The Web-application is available free of charge after registration at https://biomath.med.uth.gr/.