Exact Permutation and Bootstrap Distribution of Generalized Pairwise Comparisons Statistics

Abstract

To analyze multivariate outcomes in clinical trials, several authors have suggested generalizations of the univariate Mann–Whitney test. As the Mann–Whitney statistic compares the subjects’ outcome pairwise, the multivariate generalizations are known as generalized pairwise comparisons (GPC) statistics. For GPC statistics such as the net treatment benefit, the win ratio, and the win odds, asymptotic based or re-sampling tests have been suggested in the literature. However, asymptotic methods require a sufficiently high sample size to be accurate, and re-sampling methods come with a high computational burden. We use graph theory notation to obtain closed-form formulas for the expectation and the variance of the permutation and bootstrap sampling distribution of the GPC statistics, which can be utilized to develop fast and accurate inferential tests for each of the GPC statistics. A simple example and a simulation study demonstrate the accuracy of the exact permutation and bootstrap methods, even in very small samples. As the time complexity is O(N2), where N is the total number of patients, the exact methods are fast. In situations where asymptotic methods have been used to obtain these variance matrices, the new methods will be more accurate and equally fast. In situations where bootstrap has been used, the new methods will be both more accurate and much faster.