Estimation and confidence regions for multi-dimensional effective dose

Abstract

The problem of finding confidence regions for multiple predictor variables corresponding to given expected values of a response variable has not been adequately resolved. Motivated by an example from a study on hyperbaric exposure using a logistic regression model, we develop a conceptual framework for the estimation of the multi-dimensional effective dose for binary outcomes. The k-dimensional effective dose can be determined by conditioning on k - 1 components and solving for the last component as a conditional univariate effective dose. We consider various approaches for calculating confidence regions for the multi-dimensional effective dose and compare them via a simulation study for a range of possible designs. We analyze data related to decompression sickness to illustrate our procedure. Our results provide a practical approach to finding confidence regions for predictor variables for a given response value. © 2008 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.