Modification of the Computational Procedure in Parker and Bregmans Method of Calculating Sample Size from Matched Case– Control Studies with a Dichotomous Exposure

Several authors have addressed the problem of calculating sample size for a matched case–control study with a dichotomous exposure. The approach of Parker and Bregman (1986, Biometrics42, 919–926) is, in our view, one of the most satisfactory, since it requires specification of quantities that are often easily available to the investigator. However, its recommended implementation involves a computational approximation. We show here that the approximation performs poorly in extreme situations and can be easily replaced with a more exact calculation.