# Borenstein's method for combination of multiple outcomes before meta-analysis

I am confused that whether the variance used in the formula from Borenstein's method is the square of standard deviation or standard error of the mean? Could you help me? I thought it should be SD. However, at page 230 from the book (introduction to Meta-analysis) mentioned that "variance is 0.0036 and standard error is 0.06". Besides, can the formula be used to synthesize the multiple outcomes in each comparison group of the two comparison groups in each study?

• Can you edit your post to show us the formula? – mdewey Mar 22 '17 at 18:30
• @Hui please indicate definitions of various terms - m, i,j and v_ i etc. – Subhash C. Davar Mar 23 '17 at 3:50
• indicate briefly the problem you want to solve ? – Subhash C. Davar Mar 23 '17 at 3:53
• In my understanding from the book, m=number of outcomes in one study, i=ith outcome, j=jth outcome, where i is not equal to j. – Hui Mar 23 '17 at 4:18
• I want to know if the study provides only mean and standard deviation, can I use the square of the SD to replace the variance term in the formula? Besides, can the formula be used for each experiment group of the two experiment groups within a study? – Hui Mar 23 '17 at 4:21

The formula gives the sampling variance of the mean which can be seen either from the formula itself (it is the variance of the sum of $m$ values of $Y$ divided by $m$) or from the fact that the value given, 0.0036, is the square of 0.06.