Jennison C, Turnbull B W
School of Mathematical Sciences, University of Bath, England.
Biometrics. 1993 Mar;49(1):31-43.
We propose group sequential tests of the equivalence of two treatments based on ideas related to repeated confidence intervals. These tests adapt readily to unpredictable group sizes, to the possibility of continuing even though a boundary has been crossed, and to nonnormal observations. In comparing two binomial distributions, the required sample size depends strongly on the average success probability and an adaptive choice of group size is needed to produce an efficient test meeting specified error probability constraints. A special case is the experiment where interim analyses are performed, not for the purpose of early termination but simply to adjust the sample size so that nominal error rates will be guaranteed, despite the presence of a nuisance parameter.
我们基于与重复置信区间相关的理念，提出了两种治疗方法等效性的成组序贯检验。这些检验很容易适应不可预测的组大小、即使越过边界仍可继续的可能性以及非正态观测值。在比较两个二项分布时，所需样本量强烈依赖于平均成功概率，并且需要自适应选择组大小以产生满足指定误差概率约束的有效检验。一个特殊情况是进行期中分析的实验，其目的不是提前终止，而是仅仅调整样本量，以便在存在干扰参数的情况下仍能保证名义误差率。
