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The comparison of designs for sequential clinical trials with covariate information
Author(s) -
Atkinson Anthony C.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of the royal statistical society: series a (statistics in society)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.103
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1467-985X
pISSN - 0964-1998
DOI - 10.1111/1467-985x.00564
Subject(s) - covariate , restricted randomization , randomization , variance (accounting) , selection (genetic algorithm) , sequential analysis , statistics , type i and type ii errors , mathematics , econometrics , randomized experiment , computer science , selection bias , clinical trial , machine learning , medicine , accounting , pathology , business
Summary. The paper develops methods for the comparison of randomized rules of the biased coin type for the sequential allocation of treatments in a clinical trial. One important characteristic is the loss , which measures the increase in the variance of parameter estimates due to the imbalance caused by randomization. The other important characteristic is the selection bias measuring the probability of correctly guessing which treatment is to be allocated next. The combination of these two measures leads to the elucidation of admissible designs. Simulations provide clear plots of the behaviour of the designs and make it possible to distinguish good designs from those which are less good.