In the regular two crossover design were subjects served as own control in controlled clinical trials or diagnosis screening test to study the differential effects of two procedures such as drugs or treatments. Random samples of matched pairs might in terms of some demographic characteristics such as age, gender or body mass index are used. A randomly selected subject from each of the matched pairs of subjects is given or administered one of the 2 treatments or drugs first, while the remaining subjects in the matched pair of subjects is given or administered the remaining test drug or treatment first. This procedure is later repeated in the reverse order. That is the randomly selected subject in each matched pair of subjects given one of the two days first is now given the other drug or treatments while the remaining subject in the pair earlier given the 2nd treatment first is now given the first treatment or drug. Because of some of the problems that may often arise in these type of clinical trials in which the effects of the drugs may be long lasting, each having carry-over effects with long dry out periods, the usual practice is often to base statistical analysis and comparison of subject responses to the two treatments on only subject responses to treatments, tests or drug administered first, while treating responses obtained during the second administration of the drugs perhaps only to gauge the pattern of responses.
We here however propose a modification of this approach. Here only those subjects in each matched pairs of subjects who failed to respond positive when administered one of the treatments or tests will be administered a second treatment or test later. Similarly only those subjects in each matched pair of subjects who respond negative when administered the second drug or treatment first will later be administered the other treatment. This approach would enable the researcher not only compare the differential effects of the 2 drugs or treatment when they are administered to subjects in the matched pairs of subjects with one of the treatments given one of the subjects first and the other treatments given to the remaining subjects in the pair first. The procedure will also enable the researcher determine whether on the average the proportion of matched pairs of subjects who fail to respond positive when administered one of the 2 treatment first but respond positive when administered the other treatment later are equal to a proportion of subjects in a matched pairs of subjects who respond negative when administered the second treatment first but respond positive when administered the first treatment later.
To develop a statistical method to compare the proportion of subjects in the matched pairs of subjects who respond positive when administered the test, drug or treatment
say first with the proportion of subjects in the matched pairs of subjects who test or respond positive when administered test, drug, or treatment
first we may proceed as follows:
Suppose n is a number of randomly selected matched pairs of subjects to be used in a screening test or clinical trials. Suppose further one subject in a randomly selected matched pairs of subjects is administered treatment
say and the remaining subjects in the matched pair of subject is administered treatment
say first.
Let
(1)
Let
(2)
And
(3)
Now the expected value and variance of
are respectively
(4)
Similarly the expected value and variance
are respectively
(5)
Now
is the proportion of the probability that a subject in randomly selected matched pair of subjects test or responds positive when administered test, or treatment
first in a two period controlled trial or diagnostic screening test, for
its sample estimate is
(6)
Where
is the total number of subjects in the matched pairs of subjects who test or respond positive when administered treatment
first in a diagnostic screening test or controlled clinical trial. In other words,
is the total number of 1’s in the frequency distribution of the n values of 0s and 1s in
, for
. The corresponding sample estimate of the variance of
is
(7)
A null hypothesis that is usually of interest in two period cross over design is that the proportion of subjects in the period populations of subjects administered test, drug, or treatment
first is the same as the proportion of subjects in the paired populations of subjects administered test, drug, or treatment
first in a control clinical trial, or the null hypothesis
  (8)
Now the sample estimate of the difference in proportion,
is
(9)
Whose estimated variance is
Now it is easily shown using the specifications of equations 1-3 that
Hence
(10)
Hence the chi-square test statistic for the null hypothesis H0 of equation 8 is
(11)
Which under the null hypothesis of equation 8 has approximately the chi-square distribution with 1 degree of freedom for sufficiently large n?
Where
The null hypothesis H0 of equation 8 is rejected at the
level of significant if
, otherwise the null hypothesis H0 is accepted. As earlier noted above an additional and modified method of or approach to the analysis of data obtained in a two period cross over design is to also compare the responses of those subjects in the matched paired populations of subjects who failed to test or respond positive to one of the two treatment when administered first but respond positive when the other treatment is administered to them later with the responses of the remaining subjects who failed to respond positive when administered the second test or treatment first but respond positive when administered the first test or treatment later that is at the second trial. In these cases interest is then only in the
subjects who failed to respond positive when administered test or treatment
first but respond positive when administered test or treatment
later, that is at the second clinical trial or diagnostic screening test, for
. To conduct this additional and modified analysis of response data, we may let
(13)
Let
(14)
And
(15)
Now the expected value and variance of
are respectively
(16)
Similarly the expected value and variance of
are respectively
(17)
Now
is the proportion or the probability that a randomly selected subject in the matched pairs of subjects administered test or treatment
first fail to respond positive but this same subject respond positive when administered test or treatment
later, that is at the second trial. Its sample estimate is
(18)
Where
are the total number of subjects in the matched pairs of subjects who failed to respond positive when administered test for treatment
first but respond positive when administered test or treatment
later, that at the second trial. In other words,
is the total number of 1s in the frequency distribution of the
values of 0s and 1s in
, for
.
The sample estimate of the variance of
is
(19)
As noted above, an additional null hypothesis that may be of further research interest when expressed in terms of the difference between population proportions is
(20)
Now the sample estimate of the difference in population proportion is
(21)
The corresponding sample estimate of the variance of
is
(22)
It is easily shown using the specification of equations 13-15 that
.
Hence
(23)
The null hypothesis H0 in equation 20 may now be treated using the chi-square test statistic
(24)
Which under the null hypothesis H0 of equation 20 has approximately the chi-square distribution with 1 degree of freedom for sufficiently large values of
.
. The null hypothesis H0 of equation 20 is rejected at the
level of significance if equation 12 is satisfied; otherwise H0 is accepted.
A researcher clinician is interested in comparing the effectiveness of two malaria drugs, D1 and D2 in the treatment of malaria using two period crossover designs in a controlled clinical trial. She collected 40 random samples of matched pairs of malaria patients, matched by age, sex and body weight. She administered treatment D1 first to a randomly selected patient in each pair of patients and also administered the remaining drug D2 first to the other patient in the pair. After the dry out period she repeated a drug administration in the reverse order. But this time she administered drug D1 to only those patients who fail to improve, that is who fail to respond positive when administered drug D2 first, and also administered drug D2 now to only those patients who fail to recover when administered drug D1 first. The results are presented in Table
Now from Table 1 we have that
.
Hence
To test the null hypothesis H0 of equation 8 we have from equation 11 that
Which with 1 degree of freedom is not statistical significant
. Further research interest would now be to administer treatment T1(drug D2) to subject who fail to respond positive when administered treatment T2(drug D2) first, and also to administer treatment T2(drug D2) to subjects who fail to respond positive when administered treatment T1(drug D1) first and compare the positive responds rates for the two groups of subjects. The results are shown in Table 2.
Pair(i) |
|
Pair(i) |
|
Pair(i) |
|
1 |
|
15 |
|
29 |
|
2 |
|
16 |
|
30 |
|
3 |
|
17 |
|
31 |
|
4 |
|
18 |
|
32 |
|
5 |
|
19 |
|
33 |
|
6 |
|
20 |
|
34 |
|
7 |
|
21 |
|
35 |
|
8 |
|
22 |
|
36 |
|
9 |
|
23 |
|
37 |
|
10 |
|
24 |
|
38 |
|
11 |
|
25 |
|
39 |
|
12 |
|
26 |
|
40 |
|
13 |
|
27 |
|
|
14 |
|
28 |
|
Table 1 Responses (+,-) by subjects in Randomly Selected Matched pairs Administered Treatment
first
S/N of subjects responding negative when given treatment T2 first |
Subject response to treatment T1 when given later |
|
S/N of subjects responding negative when given treatment T1 first |
Subject response to treatment T2 when given later |
|
1 |
|
|
1 |
|
|
2 |
|
|
3 |
|
|
4 |
|
|
4 |
|
|
5 |
|
|
5 |
|
|
6 |
|
|
11 |
|
|
8 |
|
|
13 |
|
|
9 |
|
|
15 |
|
|
11 |
|
|
16 |
|
|
12 |
|
|
18 |
|
|
16 |
|
|
20 |
|
|
17 |
|
|
24 |
|
|
19 |
|
|
25 |
|
|
20 |
|
|
30 |
|
|
21 |
|
|
31 |
|
|
22 |
|
|
33 |
|
|
25 |
|
|
34 |
|
|
26 |
|
|
37 |
|
|
27 |
|
|
38 |
|
|
28 |
|
|
39 |
|
|
29 |
|
|
40 |
|
|
31 |
|
|
|
|
|
32 |
|
|
|
|
|
37 |
|
|
|
|
|
38 |
|
|
|
|
|
40 |
|
|
|
|
|
Table 2 Responses (+,-) to treatment
by Randomly Selected subjects from Matched Pairs of Subjects who fail to Respond positive when Treated with Treatment
first
Now from Table 2 we have that
.
Hence
.
Therefore the resulting difference in positive response rates by those two populations of subjects is estimated as
.
To test the null hypothesis H0 of equation 20 that subjects who fail to respond positive when administered treatment T2(D2) first but respond positive when administered treatment T1(D1) first are equally likely to experience the same level of positive responds this time around as subject who fail to respond positive when administered treatment T1(D1) first but respond positive when administered treatment T2(D2) later, we obtain from equation 24 that the required chi-square test statistics as
Which with 1 degree of freedom is not statistically significant again leading to an acceptance of the null hypothesis of equal population proportions of positive responds by subjects or patients?