Calculation of confidence intervals for a finite population size

SummaryFor any estimate of response, confidence intervals are important as they help quantify a plausible range of values for the population response. However, there may be instances in clinical research when the population size is finite, but we wish to take a sample from the population and make inference from this sample.Instances where you can have a fixed population size include when undertaking a clinical audit of patient records or in a clinical trial a researcher could be checking for transcription errors against patient notes.In this paper, we describe how confidence interval calculations can be calculated for a finite population. These confidence intervals are narrower than confidence intervals from population samples. For the extreme case of when a 100% sample from the population is taken, there is no error and the calculation is the population response.The methods in the paper are described using a case study from clinical data management.
Source: Pharmaceutical Statistics - Category: Statistics Authors: Tags: CONSULTANTS' FORUM Source Type: research