Real and Illusory Precision Gains in Meta-Analysis to Speed Action on Carcinogens.

One should avoid benzene exposure, all other things being equal. Risk assessment can help inform human health outcomes when all other things are not equal, as when competing legal or economic interests arise. In sparse literatures where exposures may be highly deleterious and yet understudied, there is a dire need for evidence synthesis, such as meta-analysis, to maximally inform risk assessment. Here, using the analysis and approach of Scholten et al from the current issue as a touch point, I describe how meta-analysis could ideally meet this aim and how it often fails to do so. Some of the current literature on transportability of causal effects is illustrative, and I describe how some of the lessons from this literature could be applied within the innovative framework of Scholten et al to leverage meta-analysis within the broader decision-making framework of risk-assessment.

在其他条件相同的情况下，应避免接触苯。当其他条件不同时，例如出现相互竞争的法律或经济利益时，风险评估有助于了解对人类健康的影响。在一些研究稀少的文献中，接触可能具有高度危害性但研究不足，迫切需要进行证据综合，如荟萃分析，以便最大限度地为风险评估提供信息。在此，以本期Scholten等人的分析和方法作为切入点，我将描述荟萃分析如何理想地实现这一目标，以及它常常为何无法实现这一目标。当前一些关于因果效应可迁移性的文献具有启发性，我将描述如何将这些文献中的一些经验教训应用于Scholten等人的创新框架内，以便在更广泛的风险评估决策框架内利用荟萃分析。