What does meta-analysis in research help to accomplish?

Meta-analysis plays a crucial role in research by combining results from different studies to identify patterns and derive more comprehensive conclusions regarding a specific question or topic. This statistical technique allows researchers to integrate findings across multiple studies, thus increasing the overall sample size, enhancing statistical power, and providing a clearer and more precise estimate of the effect being studied. By aggregating data, meta-analysis helps to uncover trends that may not be evident from individual studies and facilitates a more robust evidence-based approach to nursing practice and decision-making.

The process also addresses inconsistencies across studies and helps clarify the efficacy of interventions, making it an invaluable tool in clinical research and nursing. This contrasts with the other choices, which focus on qualitative summaries or theoretical frameworks that do not capture the quantitative synthesis of data that a meta-analysis accomplishes.