[R-meta] meta-analysis of other values than effect size

[James Pustejovsky]

Hi Gladys,

In short, yes. It's entirely possible and conventional to use group means
(or raw percentages, or group-specific SDs) as the effect size in a
meta-analysis. The metafor package's escalc() function provides options for
calculating the standard errors of such effect sizes; see details here:
https://wviechtb.github.io/metafor/reference/escalc.html#-outcome-measures-for-individual-groups
Here is an example of a synthesis that uses percentage as the effect size
metric:
https://srcd.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cdev.13039

Kind Regards,
James

On Mon, Nov 17, 2025 at 9:02 AM Gladys Barragan-Jason via
R-sig-meta-analysis <r-sig-meta-analysis using r-project.org> wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> I would like to know whether it is possible to conduct a meta-analysis on
> the mean values of a variable (for which I have sample size, standard
> deviation, mean age, gender distribution, country etc.). Can such an
> analysis be performed in a way similar to a meta-analysis of effect sizes
> where several samples came from the same study and which take the number of
> participants etc... into account?
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Gladys
> --
>
> ------------------------------------------
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