Interval estimation of generalized odds ratio in data with repeated measurements

When the underlying responses are on an ordinal scale, the generalized odds ratio (GOR), defined as the ratio of the proportions of concordant and discordant pairs, is a useful index to summarize the difference between two stochastically ordered distributions of an ordinal categorical variable. We discuss interval estimation of the GOR for ordinal data with repeated measurements. On the basis of the Dirichlet‐multinomial model, we develop three asymptotic interval estimators of the GOR using Wald's test statistic, a logarithmic transformation, and a method analogous to Fieller's theorem, respectively. To evaluate and compare the finite‐sample performance of these estimators, we apply Monte Carlo simulation. We find that when the number of subjects per group is not large, the coverage probability of interval estimator using Wald's test statistic is likely to be less than the desired confidence level. By contrast, the coverage probability of the other two estimators are approximately equal to or larger than the desired confidence level. When the number of subjects per group is small and the intraclass correlation between repeated measurements within subjects is large, we note that applying the interval estimator derived from a method analogous to Fieller's theorem can lose efficiency. We also note that the interval estimator using the logarithmic transformation is generally preferable to the other two estimators with respect to both the coverage probability and the average length. Finally, on the basis of a few preliminary simulations, we do find some robustness for all the estimators developed here. We include an example comparing the inflammation grade after lung transplant between surgeries to illustrate the use of the proposed interval estimators. Copyright 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.