title: Improved confidence intervals of a small probability from pooled testing with misclassification.
abstract: This article concerns construction of confidence intervals for the prevalence of a rare disease using Dorfman's pooled testing procedure when the disease status is classified with an imperfect biomarker. Such an interval can be derived by converting a confidence interval for the probability that a group is tested positive. Wald confidence intervals based on a normal approximation are shown to be inefficient in terms of coverage probability, even for relatively large number of pools. A few alternatives are proposed and their performance is investigated in terms of coverage probability and length of intervals.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Mathematics, Hong Kong Polytechnic University , Hong Kong , PR China.
authors.forename: Chunling
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Branch, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development , Rockville, MD , USA.
authors.forename: Aiyi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Biostatistics Core, School of Biological and Population Health Sciences, Oregon State University , Corvallis, OR , USA.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Division of Biostatistics, Center for Devices and Radiological Health, Food and Drug Administration , Silver Spring, MD , USA.
authors.forename: Zhiwei
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
keywords: confidence intervals; coverage probability; exact inference; pooling; prevalence; rare event; sensitivity; specificity