Exploring Approaches to Sample Size Determination Within a Bayesian Framework

• Activity Number: 541 - Bayesian Design in Clinical Trial and Some Challenging Issues
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Thursday, August 11, 2022 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Bayesian Statistical Science
• Author(s): Jane Pan*
• Companies: University of California, Los Angeles
• Keywords: Bayesian and classical inference; Bayesian assurance; clinical trials; power; sample size

Abstract

Power and sample size analysis comprises a critical component of clinical trial study design. There is an extensive collection of methods addressing this problem from diverse perspectives. The Bayesian paradigm has attracted noticeable attention and includes different perspectives for sample size determination. Building upon a cost-effectiveness analysis undertaken by O'Hagan and Stevens (2001) with different priors in the design and analysis stage, we develop a general Bayesian framework for simulation-based sample size determination that can be easily implemented on modest computing architectures. We work primarily in the context of conjugate Bayesian linear regression models, where we consider the situation with known and unknown variances. Our corresponding bayesassurance R package offers a constructive set of functions that address a wide range of clinical trial study design problems. Throughout our work, we draw parallels with frequentist solutions, which arise as special cases, and alternate Bayesian approaches with an emphasis on how the numerical results from existing methods arise as special cases in our framework.