Howe H L
Am J Public Health. 1982 Jul;72(7):690-7. doi: 10.2105/ajph.72.7.690.
This paper describes Wald's sequential analysis and briefly reviews the history of its applied use. Two public health applications are presented as examples of how the method helped overcome two common problems associated with evaluation research. In one case, the sequential technique reduced dramatically the workload in an evaluation project where hospital records were being reviewed. In the second case, prompt feedback of data to a breast screening program was facilitated by the sequential method allowing program administrators to refocus their efforts on problem areas before the end of the funding period. On the average, Wald's sequential method results in a savings of 50 per cent in observations as compared to classical sampling procedures. The sample sizes will always terminate with a finite number and will rarely exceed three times the average sample size for any single sample.
本文介绍了沃尔德的序贯分析，并简要回顾了其应用历史。文中给出了两个公共卫生应用案例，以说明该方法如何帮助克服评估研究中常见的两个问题。在一个案例中，序贯技术大幅减少了一个评估项目中审查医院记录的工作量。在第二个案例中，序贯方法促进了向乳房筛查项目及时反馈数据，使项目管理人员能够在资金期结束前将工作重点重新放在问题领域。平均而言，与传统抽样程序相比，沃尔德序贯方法可节省50%的观测值。样本量总会在有限的数量处终止，并且很少会超过任何单个样本平均样本量的三倍。
