We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Capturing the pool dilution effect in group testing regression: A Bayesian approach.
- Authors
Self, Stella; McMahan, Christopher; Mokalled, Stefani
- Abstract
Group (pooled) testing is becoming a popular strategy for screening large populations for infectious diseases. This popularity is owed to the cost savings that can be realized through implementing group testing methods. These methods involve physically combining biomaterial (eg, saliva, blood, urine) collected on individuals into pooled specimens which are tested for an infection of interest. Through testing these pooled specimens, group testing methods reduce the cost of diagnosing all individuals under study by reducing the number of tests performed. Even though group testing offers substantial cost reductions, some practitioners are hesitant to adopt group testing methods due to the so-called dilution effect. The dilution effect describes the phenomenon in which biomaterial from negative individuals dilute the contributions from positive individuals to such a degree that a pool is incorrectly classified. Ignoring the dilution effect can reduce classification accuracy and lead to bias in parameter estimates and inaccurate inference. To circumvent these issues, we propose a Bayesian regression methodology which directly acknowledges the dilution effect while accommodating data that arises from any group testing protocol. As a part of our estimation strategy, we are able to identify pool specific optimal classification thresholds which are aimed at maximizing the classification accuracy of the group testing protocol being implemented. These two features working in concert effectively alleviate the primary concerns raised by practitioners regarding group testing. The performance of our methodology is illustrated via an extensive simulation study and by being applied to Hepatitis B data collected on Irish prisoners.
- Subjects
HEPATITIS B; COMPUTER simulation; MEDICAL screening; BIOMEDICAL materials; RESEARCH funding; PROBABILITY theory
- Publication
Statistics in Medicine, 2022, Vol 41, Issue 23, p4682
- ISSN
0277-6715
- Publication type
journal article
- DOI
10.1002/sim.9532