title: Correlated binomial variates: properties of estimator of intraclass correlation and its effect on sample size calculation.
abstract: In group randomized studies, the sample size calculations are complicated by within group (worksite, community, etc.) correlation. We compare by simulation the moment method and the more standard ANOVA method of estimating the intraclass correlation. We find the former is less biased for a small to moderate number of clusters but the difference disappears when the appropriate degree of freedom is used for the ANOVA estimator. We propose a simulation approach for sample size determination and illustrate it with an example.
authors.affiliation: Cancer Prevention Research Program, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA 98104.
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Grizzle
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D015982:Bias; D005431:Florida / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009786:Occupational Health Services / Q000592:standards; D015995:Prevalence; D011897:Random Allocation; D012494:Sampling Studies; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology; D000074606:Smoking Prevention