A Note on Comparing Several Poisson Means

Abstract

There has been a renewed interest lately in comparing the means (rates) of several Poisson distributions (processes) due to its wide applicability in various fields, especially in life sciences. In this article we first review the recent developments in the literature, and then propose a parametric bootstrap method which performs as good as, if not better than, the existing methods. Results of our comprehensive simulation study have been provided to compare the relevant methods. Finally these methods have been used to four real-life datasets including a most recent one obtained from a clinical trial on the Intrinsa hormone patch developed by Proctor & Gamble.

Keywords:

• Level of significance
• Maximum likelihood estimation
• Parametric bootstrap
• Power function
• Size

Mathematics Subject Classification:

• Primary 62F03
• Secondary 62E17

Acknowledgment

We sincerely thank the two anonymous referees who provided several constructive suggestions which led to a substantial improvement in the presentation of the materials of this work.

Notes

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