Standard Error from Confidence Interval for Mean Differences

Calculates the standard error from the confidence interval limits for differences of means.
For SMD confidence intervals, this function can recover an SE for generic inverse variance meta-analysis. Keep that SE separate from raw SD recovery: do not pass an SE from an SMD CI into SDp_from_SEp to recover a raw pooled SD.
This method is valid only when the confidence interval is symmetrical around the mean and is applicable for t-distributions or normal distributions (as specified by the t_dist argument).
For sample sizes less than 60, it is generally recommended to use the t-distribution.

Lower CI limit
Upper CI limit
Sample size group 1 (not required if t_dist = FALSE)
Sample size group 2 (not required if t_dist = FALSE)
The significance level
Whether the two-tailed or one-tailed statistics should be calculated
Whether the t-distribution should be calculated - requires samples sizes
Within Study Result

Result

Function References

Cochrane Handbook

How to Cite

Emprechtinger, R., Schwarzer, G., Tölch, U., Schreder, G., & Gartlehner, G. (2025). Assessing the effectiveness of metaHelper: A randomized controlled trial of a web application and R package to streamline statistical transformations in meta-analysis. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 179, 111640. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2024.111640

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