How Should Parallel Cluster Randomized Trials With a Baseline Period be Analyzed?-A Survey of Estimands and Common Estimators.

ABSTRACT: The parallel cluster randomized trial with baseline (PB-CRT) is a common variant of the standard parallel cluster randomized trial (P-CRT). We define two natural estimands in the context of PB-CRTs with informative cluster sizes, the individual-average treatment effect (iATE) and cluster-average treatment effect (cATE), to address individual and cluster-level hypotheses. In this work, we theoretically derive the convergence of the unweighted and inverse cluster-period size weighted (i) independence estimating equation (IEE), (ii) fixed-effects (FE) model, (iii) exchangeable mixed-effects (EME) model, and (iv) nested-exchangeable mixed-effects (NEME) model treatment effect estimators in a PB-CRT with informative cluster sizes and continuous outcomes. Overall, we theoretically show that the

SUBMITTER: Lee KM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12041842 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature