title: Homogeneity/heterogeneity hypotheses for standardized mortality ratios based on minimum power-divergence estimators.
abstract: This paper analyzes the power divergence estimators when homogeneity/heterogeneity hypotheses among standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) are taken into account. A Monte Carlo study shows that when the standard mortality rate is not external, that is it is estimated from the sample data, these estimators have a good performance even for small sample sets and in particular the minimum chi-square estimators have a better behavior compared to the classical maximum likelihood estimators. In order to make decisions under homogeneity/heterogeneity hypotheses of SMRs we propose some test-statistics which consider the minimum power divergence estimators. Through a numerical example focused on SMRs of melanoma mortality ratios in different regions of the US, a homogeneity/heterogeneity study is illustrated.
authors.affiliation: Department of Statistics and O.R., Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Leandro
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pardo
authors.forename: Nirian
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Martín
mesh_terms: D001699:Biometry / Q000379:methods*; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D006801:Humans; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D008545:Melanoma / Q000401:mortality; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D009026:Mortality; D016012:Poisson Distribution; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology