Biomaterial Database

Biological variation: Evaluation of methods for constructing confidence intervals for estimates of within-person biological variation for different distributions of the within-person effect. 2017

Thomas Røraas, and Bård Støve, and Per Hyltoft Petersen, and Sverre Sandberg

Norwegian Quality Improvement of Primary Care Laboratories (NOKLUS), Haraldsplass Deaconess Hospital, Bergen, Norway; Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care, University of Bergen, Norway. Electronic address: thomas.roraas@me.com.

BACKGROUND Precise estimates of the within-person biological variation, CVI, can be essential both for monitoring patients and for setting analytical performance specifications. The confidence interval, CI, may be used to evaluate the reliability of an estimate, as it is a good measure of the uncertainty of the estimated CVI. The aim of the present study is to evaluate and establish methods for constructing a CI with the correct coverage probability and non-cover probability when estimating CVI. METHODS Data based on 3 models for distributions for the within-person effect were simulated to assess the performance of 3 methods for constructing confidence intervals; the formula based method for the nested ANOVA, the percentile bootstrap and the bootstrap-t methods. RESULTS The performance of the evaluated methods for constructing a CI varied, both dependent on the size of the CVI and the type of distributions. The bootstrap-t CI have good and stable performance for the models evaluated, while the formula based are more distribution dependent. The percentile bootstrap performs poorly. CONCLUSIONS CI is an essential part of estimation of the within-person biological variation. Good coverage probability and non-cover probabilities for CI are achievable by using the bootstrap-t combined with CV-ANOVA. Supplemental R-code is provided online.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D012984	Software	Sequential operating programs and data which instruct the functioning of a digital computer.	Computer Programs,Computer Software,Open Source Software,Software Engineering,Software Tools,Computer Applications Software,Computer Programs and Programming,Computer Software Applications,Application, Computer Software,Applications Software, Computer,Applications Softwares, Computer,Applications, Computer Software,Computer Applications Softwares,Computer Program,Computer Software Application,Engineering, Software,Open Source Softwares,Program, Computer,Programs, Computer,Software Application, Computer,Software Applications, Computer,Software Tool,Software, Computer,Software, Computer Applications,Software, Open Source,Softwares, Computer Applications,Softwares, Open Source,Source Software, Open,Source Softwares, Open,Tool, Software,Tools, Software
D015233	Models, Statistical	Statistical formulations or analyses which, when applied to data and found to fit the data, are then used to verify the assumptions and parameters used in the analysis. Examples of statistical models are the linear model, binomial model, polynomial model, two-parameter model, etc.	Probabilistic Models,Statistical Models,Two-Parameter Models,Model, Statistical,Models, Binomial,Models, Polynomial,Statistical Model,Binomial Model,Binomial Models,Model, Binomial,Model, Polynomial,Model, Probabilistic,Model, Two-Parameter,Models, Probabilistic,Models, Two-Parameter,Polynomial Model,Polynomial Models,Probabilistic Model,Two Parameter Models,Two-Parameter Model
D016001	Confidence Intervals	A range of values for a variable of interest, e.g., a rate, constructed so that this range has a specified probability of including the true value of the variable.	Confidence Interval,Interval, Confidence,Intervals, Confidence
D019963	Clinical Chemistry Tests	Laboratory tests demonstrating the presence of physiologically significant substances in the blood, urine, tissue, and body fluids with application to the diagnosis or therapy of disease.	Chemistry Tests, Clinical,Chemistry Test, Clinical,Clinical Chemistry Test,Test, Clinical Chemistry,Tests, Clinical Chemistry