Power and sample size calculation for stepped-wedge designs with discrete outcomes

Background Stepped-wedge designs (SWD) are increasingly used to evaluate the impact of changes to the process of care within health care systems. However, to generate definitive evidence, a correct sample size calculation is crucial to ensure such studies are properly powered. The seminal work of Hussey and Hughes (Contemp Clin Trials 28(2):182-91, 2004) provides an analytical formula for power calculations with normal outcomes using a linear model and simple random effects. However, minimal development and evaluation have been done for power calculation with non-normal outcomes on their natural scale (e.g., logit, log). For example, binary endpoints are common, and logistic regression is the natural multilevel model for such clustered data. Methods We propose a power calculation formula for SWD with either normal or non-normal outcomes in the context of generalized linear mixed models by adopting the Laplace approximation detailed in Breslow and Clayton (J Am Stat Assoc 88(421):9-25, 1993) to obtain the covariance matrix of the estimated parameters. Results We compare the performance of our proposed method with simulation-based sample size calculation and demonstrate its use on a study of patient-delivered partner therapy for STI treatment and a study that assesses the impact of providing additional benchmark prevalence information in a radiologic imaging report. To facilitate adoption of our methods we also provide a function embedded in the R package "swCRTdesign" for sample size and power calculation for multilevel stepped-wedge designs. Conclusions Our method requires minimal computational power. Therefore, the proposed procedure facilitates rapid dynamic updates of sample size calculations and can be used to explore a wide range of design options or assumptions.