Statistics and Its Interface

Volume 4 (2011)

Number 3

Accurate and flexible power calculations on the spot: Applications to genomic research

Pages: 353 – 358

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4310/SII.2011.v4.n3.a9

Authors

David B. Allison (Department of Biostatistics, Section on Statistical Genetics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, U.S.A.)

Thomas Birkner (Department of Biostatistics, Section on Statistical Genetics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, U.S.A.)

Ankur Moondan (Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India)

Grier P. Page (Research Triangle Institute International, Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A.)

Amit Patki (Department of Biostatistics, Section on Statistical Genetics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, U.S.A.)

Hemant K. Tiwari (Department of Biostatistics, Section on Statistical Genetics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, U.S.A.)

Shiju Zhang (St. Cloud University, St. Cloud, Minnesota, U.S.A.)

Abstract

Often investigators need to calculate power to demonstrate feasibility of proposed genetic studies for grant proposals or simply to aid in their own study planning. Frequently, power can be easily calculated using a closed form formula. However, in some situations such formulae for calculating power have not been derived and derivation on demand may be difficult if not impossible. In these situations investigators typically perform simulations specific to the study. Yet such simulations can be computationally extensive and take weeks to months depending on the circumstances. Here, we provide a simple method to rapidly estimate power when one has power estimates available for corresponding situations that differ from the situation of interest only in sample size and/or alpha (type I error) level desired. We show by application to multiple published results from the genomics field that these methods are generally very accurate and applicable to a broad range of genomic studies.

Keywords

power, asymptotics, sample size, TDT, linkage, association, GxG, haplotype

Full Text (PDF format)

Published 29 August 2011