UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

Sample size and power calculations for open cohort longitudinal cluster randomized trials

Kasza, J; Hooper, R; Copas, A; Forbes, AB; (2020) Sample size and power calculations for open cohort longitudinal cluster randomized trials. Statistics in Medicine , 39 (13) pp. 1871-1883. 10.1002/sim.8519. Green open access

[thumbnail of Copas_sim.8519.pdf]
Preview
Text
Copas_sim.8519.pdf - Published Version

Download (751kB) | Preview

Abstract

When calculating sample size or power for stepped wedge or other types of longitudinal cluster randomized trials, it is critical that the planned sampling structure be accurately specified. One common assumption is that participants will provide measurements in each trial period, that is, a closed cohort, and another is that each participant provides only one measurement during the course of the trial. However some studies have an "open cohort" sampling structure, where participants may provide measurements in variable numbers of periods. To date, sample size calculations for longitudinal cluster randomized trials have not accommodated open cohorts. Feldman and McKinlay (1994) provided some guidance, stating that the participant-level autocorrelation could be varied to account for the degree of overlap in different periods of the study, but did not indicate precisely how to do so. We present sample size and power formulas that allow for open cohorts and discuss the impact of the degree of "openness" on sample size and power. We consider designs where the number of participants in each cluster will be maintained throughout the trial, but individual participants may provide differing numbers of measurements. Our results are a unification of closed cohort and repeated cross-sectional sample results of Hooper et al (2016), and indicate precisely how participant autocorrelation of Feldman and McKinlay should be varied to account for an open cohort sampling structure. We discuss different types of open cohort sampling schemes and how open cohort sampling structure impacts on power in the presence of decaying within-cluster correlations and autoregressive participant-level errors.

Type: Article
Title: Sample size and power calculations for open cohort longitudinal cluster randomized trials
Location: England
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1002/sim.8519
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.8519
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Statistics in Medicine published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Keywords: cluster crossover trial, intra cluster correlation, mixed effects models, stepped wedge
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute for Global Health
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute for Global Health > Infection and Population Health
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10093230
Downloads since deposit
45Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item