title: Accurate confidence limits for stratified clinical trials.
abstract: For stratified 2 × 2 tables, standard approximate confidence limits can perform poorly from a strict frequentist perspective, even for moderate-sized samples, yet they are routinely used. In this paper, I show how to use importance sampling to compute highly accurate limits in reasonable time. The methodology is very general and simple to implement, and orders of magnitude are faster than existing alternatives.
authors.affiliation: Melbourne Business School, University of Melbourne, Carlton, 3053, Australia. c.lloyd@mbs.edu
authors.forename: Chris J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Lloyd
mesh_terms: D000135:Acid Phosphatase / Q000097:blood; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D006801:Humans; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D000135:Acid Phosphatase
keywords: Buehler bounds; exact upper limits; importance sampling; profile upper limits; stochastic approximation