Effectiveness of blended learning in clinical medicine teaching in China: a systematic review and Meta-analysis

Objective To explore the effectiveness of blended learning in clinical medicine teaching in China using Meta-analysis, so as to provide a reference for cultivating clinical medical talents and improving the quality of medical education.Methods PubMed, CNKI, WanFang Data, and SinoMed databases were searched for studies investigating blended learning in clinical medicine teaching. Literature screening, data extraction and quality assessment were independently conducted by two researchers. Meta-analysis was performed using Stata12.0 software. Heterogeneity was evaluated by subgroup analyses, and sensitivity analysis was performed to detect the influence of any single study on the overall prevalence estimates.Results A total of 66 studies were included with significant between-study heterogeneity. The results of a Meta-analysis based on a random-effects model showed that blended learning had a significantly better positive effect size on theoretical knowledge [SMD=1.73, 95%CI(1.32, 2.15), P