Abstract: In traditional meta-analysis, only a single effect size estimate can be produced in each study to make each effect size estimate be independent from each other. If there are multiple effect size estimates in a single study, multivariate meta-analysis technique is needed to deal with the data. Multivariate meta-analysis includes multivariate linear modeling and multivariate integrative method, in which multivariate integrative method is one of the widest used approaches. Multivariate integrative method can solve the problem of multiple dependent effect sizes effectively and can also do the statistical analysis by fixed effects models and mixed effects models. However, some problems still exist in the appliance of multivariate integrative method, such as the development of the statistical software, the stability of the significance of homogeneity Q test and the feasibility of homogeneity test of heterogeneous synthetic effect sizes.

Key words: multivariate integrative method, multivariate meta-analysis, effect size, dependence, synthetic effect size