ANSWER: Several software packages provide tools for Meta Analytic techniques.

SAS

The use of SAS software for Meta Analysis is treated in the following book, available from SAS Institute, Box 8000, Cary NC 27512 (919/677-8000):
Integrating Results Through Meta-Analytic Review Using SAS Software
order number: MS 55810
price (03/99): $41.95

The SAS Web site at http://www.sas.com/ may also have further information related to Meta-Analysis.

Users of SPSS can find information on how their software performs Meta Analysis at the SPSS Web site: www.spss.com/

The following sites also are helpful sources of information:

www.spsstools.net/SampleSyntax.htm#MetaAnalysis www.angelfire.com/wv/bwhomedir/spss/fleiss.txt

(Thanks to our colleague at Northern Ontario School of Medicine for these suggestions.)

Users have reported to ITS that one technique used in Meta Analysis is a "blobbogram"***. This was described by one caller as a "Relative Risk 95% Confidence Interval".

SPSS can produce relative risk estimates and 95% confidence intervals in the CROSSTABS procedure using the STATISTICS=RISK subcommand. There is a corresponding checkbox for RISK in the point-and-click CROSSTABS interface.

SAS suggests that one consider PROC FREQ or PROC PHREG to generate the 95% confidence intervals, then use the ANNOTATE capabilities in SAS/GRAPH to create a custom graph.