ArticleStatistical methods in medical research2024
The staircase cluster randomised trial design: A pragmatic alternative to the stepped wedge.
Article in Statistical methods in medical research, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed.
- The impact of a multi-component hospital avoidance programme in residential aged care homes: a stepped-wedge cluster randomised trial.Age and ageing · 2025Trial
- Trial
- Which Small-Sample Correction Should be Used When Analyzing Stepped-Wedge Designs With Time-Varying Treatment Effects?Statistics in medicine · 2026Article
- Employing Peer Outreach and Whole Health in Recovery (EMPOWER) for homeless-experienced veterans: protocol for a hybrid type 3 implementation trial.Implementation science : IS · 2026Article
- Designing Cluster Randomized Trials: A Practical Guide for Investigators.Medical care · 2026Article
- Analysis of Stepped-Wedge Cluster Randomized Trials: A Tutorial Using Marginal Models.Statistics in medicine · 2026Article
- Factors affecting power in stepped wedge trials when the treatment effect varies with time.Trials · 2026Article
- Article
- Development of the FIDES Athlete Development Program 'girls are not small boys': a digital educational intervention.BMJ open sport & exercise medicine · 2026Article
- Network generalized estimating equations for complexly correlated data with applications to cluster randomized trials.Biostatistics (Oxford, England) · 2025Article
- What scientific inferences can be made with randomized implementation rollout trials.Implementation science : IS · 2025Article
- Analysis of Stepped-Wedge Cluster Randomized Trials When Treatment Effects Vary by Exposure Time or Calendar Time.Statistics in medicine · 2025Article
- Grand rounds in methodology: improving the design of staggered implementation cluster randomised trials.BMJ quality & safety · 2025Article
- Optimal Allocation of Observations in Stepped-Wedge and Other Cluster Studies With Correlated Cluster-Period Effects.Statistics in medicine · 2025Article
- Inference for the treatment effect in staircase designs with continuous outcomes: a simulation study.BMC medical research methodology · 2025Article
- The relative efficiency of staircase and stepped wedge cluster randomised trial designs.Statistical methods in medical research · 2025Article
- Identifying Less Burdensome and More Cost-Efficient Incomplete Stepped Wedge Designs for Continuous Outcomes Collected via Repeated Cross-Sections.Statistics in medicine · 2025Article
- Designing stepped wedge trials to evaluate physical activity interventions in schools: methodological considerations.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
This article introduces the 'staircase' design, derived from the zigzag pattern of steps along the diagonal of a stepped wedge design schematic where clusters switch from control to intervention conditions. Unlike a complete stepped wedge design where all participating clusters must collect and provide data for the entire trial duration, clusters in a staircase design are only required to be involved and collect data for a limited number of pre- and post-switch periods. This could alleviate some of the burden on participating clusters, encouraging involvement in the trial and reducing the likelihood of attrition. Staircase designs are already being implemented, although in the absence of a dedicated methodology, approaches to sample size and power calculations have been inconsistent. We provide expressions for the variance of the treatment effect estimator when a linear mixed model for an outcome is assumed for the analysis of staircase designs in order to enable appropriate sample size and power calculations. These include explicit variance expressions for basic staircase designs with one pre- and one post-switch measurement period. We show how the variance of the treatment effect estimator is related to key design parameters and demonstrate power calculations for examples based on a real trial.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.