School of Health Systems and Public Health

HME 712 Week 5 Fact sheet bos_14

The calculation of sample size for means and proportions

Means:
Precision is defined as follows:

The precision is half the 95% CI;

Hence, if the CI is from 10 to 15 (difference = 5) then the precision is 5/2 = 2.5
The CI is obtained as follows: sample mean +/- t*s/√n
Hence Precision = t*s/√n; we do not know t as we do not know the sample size. We could use 1.96 but that will
usually be too low. In this course we teach you to use “2” in place of t for estimating sample size.
We then substitute into the formula:
Precision = 2s/√n; or
√n = 2s/Precision; or
2
N = (2s/Precision)
This means we need to know the values of:
 the precision that is required; AND
 s
2
If we want a precision of 1.3 and we know that s = 3.7 then sample size is (2*3.7/1.3) = 32.4

If response rate is expected at 0.8, n’ = 32.4/0.8 = 40.5. We round this up so our final sample size is 41

On the next page we will deal with sample size for proportions in a similar way.

Students frequently confuse the calculations and try to use the mean calculations for proportions or the
proportion calculations for the mean. This will cause you to obtain the incorrect answers. Please be very careful
to use the correct calculation method.

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Proportions:
Precision is defined as follows:

The precision is half the 95% CI;

Hence, if the CI is from 0.55 to 0.85 (difference = 0.30) then the precision is 0.30/2 = 0.15
The CI is obtained as follows: sample mean +/- t*spropn
Hence Precision = t*spropn; we do not know t as we do not know the sample size. We could use 1.96 but that
will be too low. In this course we teach you to use “2” in place of t for estimating sample size.

𝑝̂𝑞̂
Spropn = √ where p̂ is the proportion with the outcome and q̂ = 1- p̂.
𝑛

We then substitute into the formula:

𝑝̂𝑞̂
Precision = 2* √ ; or, square both sides to get …
𝑛

2 𝑝̂𝑞̂
Precision = 4*( ); or
𝑛
2
n = (4* p̂ * q̂) /Precision

As we usually do not know p̂ we assign it a default (safe) value of p̂ = 0.5;

in such a case p̂ * q̂ = 0.5*0.5 = 0.25
This means we need to know the values of:
 the precision that is required; AND
 p̂ (otherwise assumed to be the default of 0.5). The formula then becomes:

n = 1/Precision2
If we want a precision of 0.05 then sample size is 1/(0.05*0.05) = 1/ 0.0025 = 400

If response rate is expected at 0.9, n’ = 400/0.9 = 444.44. We round this up so our final sample size is 445