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Allocating recycled significance levels in group sequential procedures for multiple endpoints
Author(s) -
Xi Dong,
Tamhane Ajit C.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
biometrical journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.108
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1521-4036
pISSN - 0323-3847
DOI - 10.1002/bimj.201300157
Subject(s) - statistical significance , sample size determination , statistical power , sample (material) , statistics , multiple comparisons problem , econometrics , statistical hypothesis testing , computer science , focus (optics) , mathematics , r package , control (management) , clinical significance , group (periodic table) , artificial intelligence , chemistry , physics , organic chemistry , chromatography , optics
Graphical approaches have been proposed in the literature for testing hypotheses on multiple endpoints by recycling significance levels from rejected hypotheses to unrejected ones. Recently, they have been extended to group sequential procedures (GSPs). Our focus in this paper is on the allocation of recycled significance levels from rejected hypotheses to the stages of the GSPs for unrejected hypotheses. We propose a delayed recycling method that allocates the recycled significance level from Stage r onward, where r is prespecified. We show that r cannot be chosen adaptively to coincide with the random stage at which the hypothesis from which the significance level is recycled is rejected. Such an adaptive GSP does not always control the FWER. One can choose r to minimize the expected sample size for a given power requirement. We illustrate how a simulation approach can be used for this purpose. Several examples, including a clinical trial example, are given to illustrate the proposed procedure.