We decided not to conduct a meta-analysis because of certain limitations in the data. For example, of 68 discrete core studies, only 4 provided confidence intervals, none provide standard errors.
It is not practical to show every rate for the studies, so we will provide a visual picture via a cumulative distribution (an example is given above). This distribution is displayed in rank order for incidence rate (lowest to highest ranks) with the cumulative percent of rates shown on the vertical axis. The plots show the 50% (median), and 25% and 75% quantiles (within which lies the inter-quartile range). We report all studies as rates per 100,000 population.
However, because one study may provide more than one rate, we needed to take into account the within-study variance
and lack of independence. We also deal with skewed distributions by using log transformation. Thus some caution is needed with the visual presentations.