Interval estimation of common risk difference for stratified unilateral and bilateral data✩.

Abstract

In clinical trials, unilateral or bilateral data can usually be encountered if a subject contributes one or both of paired organs. For the bilateral data, responses from two paired body parts are correlated. In this paper, we study various confidence intervals of common risk difference in stratified unilateral and bilateral data based on the Dallal's model. Simulation results show that the score method outperforms other methods and provides coverage probability close to the nominal level and satisfactory coverage width. Hence, the method is recommended. In addition, the inverse hyperbolic tangent Wald-type become as optimal as the score method with the increase of sample sizes. An otolaryngology example is used to demonstrate the proposed methods.