Geographic pair matching in large-scale cluster randomized trials.
Nat Commun
; 15(1): 1069, 2024 Feb 05.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38316755
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 least twice as many clusters to achieve the same level of precision as the geographically pair matched design. We also show that geographically pair matched designs enable estimation of fine-scale, spatially varying effect heterogeneity under minimal assumptions. Our results demonstrate broad, substantial benefits of geographic pair matching in large-scale, cluster randomized trials.
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Projetos de Pesquisa
/
Saúde Pública
Tipo de estudo:
Clinical_trials
Limite:
Child
/
Humans
País/Região como assunto:
Africa
/
Asia
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2024
Tipo de documento:
Article