TY - JOUR
T1 - An easy to use method to approximate Poisson confidence limits
AU - Bégaud, Bernard
AU - Martin, Karin
AU - Abouelfath, Abdelilah
AU - Tubert-Bitter, Pascale
AU - Moore, Nicholas
AU - Moride, Yola
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors are indebted to Professor Joseph Lell-ouch (INSERM U472, Paris) for his very valuable help and comments. This work has not been supported by a specific funding or grant and, therefore, is not subject to any conflict of interest.
PY - 2005/3
Y1 - 2005/3
N2 - Despite the ever larger choice of softwares and statistical packages allowing fast and accurate computation of binomial and Poisson confidence limits, there is always a need for a simple and reliable formula allowing non-computerized computations. The method proposed in this paper is derived from the Freeman and Tukey's variance stabilizing transformation for a random Poisson variable and adjusted for giving the best fit with the exact Poisson values. Despite its simplicity, allowing its use in any circumstances, this method provides very satisfactory results and a much better fit than classical formula based on the normal approximation, even if a continuity correction is used. It allows computation of Poisson confidence limits both for count or rates and proportions.
AB - Despite the ever larger choice of softwares and statistical packages allowing fast and accurate computation of binomial and Poisson confidence limits, there is always a need for a simple and reliable formula allowing non-computerized computations. The method proposed in this paper is derived from the Freeman and Tukey's variance stabilizing transformation for a random Poisson variable and adjusted for giving the best fit with the exact Poisson values. Despite its simplicity, allowing its use in any circumstances, this method provides very satisfactory results and a much better fit than classical formula based on the normal approximation, even if a continuity correction is used. It allows computation of Poisson confidence limits both for count or rates and proportions.
KW - Biostatistics
KW - Confidence intervals
KW - Poisson approximation
KW - Poisson count
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U2 - 10.1007/s10654-004-6517-4
DO - 10.1007/s10654-004-6517-4
M3 - Article
C2 - 15921037
AN - SCOPUS:17644417491
SN - 0393-2990
VL - 20
SP - 213
EP - 216
JO - European Journal of Epidemiology
JF - European Journal of Epidemiology
IS - 3
ER -