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Small-sample performance and underlying assumptions of a bootstrap-based inference method for a general analysis of covariance model with possibly heteroskedastic and nonnormal errors.

Authors :
Zimmermann, Georg
Pauly, Markus
Bathke, Arne C
Source :
Statistical Methods in Medical Research; Dec2019, Vol. 28 Issue 12, p3808-3821, 14p
Publication Year :
2019

Abstract

It is well known that the standard F test is severely affected by heteroskedasticity in unbalanced analysis of covariance models. Currently available potential remedies for such a scenario are based on heteroskedasticity-consistent covariance matrix estimation (HCCME). However, the HCCME approach tends to be liberal in small samples. Therefore, in the present paper, we propose a combination of HCCME and a wild bootstrap technique, with the aim of improving the small-sample performance. We precisely state a set of assumptions for the general analysis of covariance model and discuss their practical interpretation in detail, since this issue may have been somewhat neglected in applied research so far. We prove that these assumptions are sufficient to ensure the asymptotic validity of the combined HCCME-wild bootstrap analysis of covariance. The results of our simulation study indicate that our proposed test remedies the problems of the analysis of covariance F test and its heteroskedasticity-consistent alternatives in small to moderate sample size scenarios. Our test only requires very mild conditions, thus being applicable in a broad range of real-life settings, as illustrated by the detailed discussion of a dataset from preclinical research on spinal cord injury. Our proposed method is ready-to-use and allows for valid hypothesis testing in frequently encountered settings (e.g., comparing group means while adjusting for baseline measurements in a randomized controlled clinical trial). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
09622802
Volume :
28
Issue :
12
Database :
Complementary Index
Journal :
Statistical Methods in Medical Research
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
138612393
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1177/0962280218817796