Geographic pair matching in large-scale cluster randomized trials.

ABSTRACT: Cluster randomized trials are often used to study large-scale public health interventions. In large trials, even small improvements in statistical efficiency can have profound impacts on the required sample size and cost. Location integrates many socio-demographic and environmental characteristics into a single, readily available feature. Here we show that pair matching by geographic location leads to substantial gains in statistical efficiency for 14 child health outcomes that span growth, development, and infectious disease through a re-analysis of two large-scale trials of nutritional and environmental interventions in Bangladesh and Kenya. Relative efficiencies from pair matching are ≥1.1 for all outcomes and regularly exceed 2.0, meaning an unmatched trial would need to enroll at leas

SUBMITTER: Arnold BF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10844220 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature