Date of Award

2009

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Program

Epidemiology and Biostatistics

Supervisor

Dr. Guang Yong Zou

Abstract

The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) has application in several fields of research. Various confidence interval methods for a single ICC are available. However, statis­ tical inference for multiple ICCs has primarily relied on hypothesis testing which cannot distinguish between statistical significance and practical importance. The focus of this thesis is to develop and evaluate confidence interval procedures for a difference between two correlated ICCs with variable class sizes. The strategy used in the thesis is to recover variance estimates needed for the confidence interval for the difference from the confidence limits for single ICCs. Simulation results show that the procedure based on inverse hyperbolic tangent transformation for single ICCs performs well. The Galton’s 1886 dataset on siblings heights is used to illustrate the methodology.

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.