title: Adjustments to the Mantel-Haenszel test for data from stratified multistage surveys.
abstract: The usual form of the Mantel-Haenszel test statistic assumes independent observations. This is inappropriate for data from a stratified multistage survey. Two alternative adjustments to the test statistic are developed to deal with this: (a) a modification of the effective sample size for each row of each table, using the design effects, extending a method proposed by Donald and Donner for familial aggregation studies; (b) a Taylor series approximation to the variance of the square root of the numerator of the Mantel-Haenszel statistic. Both methods are evaluated by application to both simulated and real data. The two methods perform equally well, and offer a considerable improvement over the unadjusted test statistic when observations from the same cluster are highly correlated. A simplified adjustment is also considered, as is the need for correction to the variance of the odds ratio estimator.
authors.affiliation: Department of Statistics and Computer Science, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka.
authors.forename: D R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Weerasekera
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bennett
mesh_terms: D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D015987:Effect Modifier, Epidemiologic; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D016017:Odds Ratio; D015995:Prevalence; D012107:Research Design / Q000592:standards