title: Correspondence: Some general points regarding Ledberg and Wennberg, BMC Medical Research Methodology 2014 April 27;14:58.
abstract: The purpose of this note is to contribute some general points on a recent paper by Ledberg and Wennberg (BMC Med Res Meth 14:58, 2014) which need to be rectified. They advocate the capture-removal estimator. First, we will discuss drawbacks of this estimator in comparison to the Lincoln-Petersen estimator. Second, we show that their evaluation of the Chao estimator is flawed. We conclude that some statements in Ledberg and Wennberg with respect to Chao's estimator and removal estimation need to be taken with great caution.
authors.affiliation: Southampton Statistical Sciences Research Institute, Mathematics and Medical Statistics, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK. d.a.bohning@soton.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Dankmar
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Böhning
authors.affiliation: Southampton Statistical Sciences Research Institute, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK. P.G.M.vanderHeijden@uu.nl.|Department of Methods and Statistics, Social Sciences, University of Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands. P.G.M.vanderHeijden@uu.nl.
authors.forename: Peter G M
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: van der Heijden
mesh_terms: D006556:Heroin Dependence / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality*; D006801:Humans; D011156:Population Density