Power considerations for generalized estimating equations analyses of four-level cluster randomized trials.

ABSTRACT: In this article, we develop methods for sample size and power calculations in four-level intervention studies when intervention assignment is carried out at any level, with a particular focus on cluster randomized trials (CRTs). CRTs involving four levels are becoming popular in healthcare research, where the effects are measured, for example, from evaluations (level 1) within participants (level 2) in divisions (level 3) that are nested in clusters (level 4). In such multilevel CRTs, we consider three types of intraclass correlations between different evaluations to account for such clustering: that of the same participant, that of different participants from the same division, and that of different participants from different divisions in the same cluster. Assuming arbitrary link and var

SUBMITTER: Wang X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9574475 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature