Finite-sample corrected generalized estimating equation of population average treatment effects in stepped wedge cluster randomized trials.

ABSTRACT: Stepped wedge designs are increasingly commonplace and advantageous for cluster randomized trials when it is both unethical to assign placebo, and it is logistically difficult to allocate an intervention simultaneously to many clusters. We study marginal mean models fit with generalized estimating equations for assessing treatment effectiveness in stepped wedge cluster randomized trials. This approach has advantages over the more commonly used mixed models that (1) the population-average parameters have an important interpretation for public health applications and (2) they avoid untestable assumptions on latent variable distributions and avoid parametric assumptions about error distributions, therefore, providing more robust evidence on treatment effects. However, cluster randomized trial

SUBMITTER: Scott JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4411204 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature