Date of Award

7-18-2008

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Mathematics and Statistics

First Advisor

Gengsheng Qin - Chair

Second Advisor

Yixin Fang

Third Advisor

Yu-sheng Hsu

Abstract

Youden index, a main summary index for the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve, is a comprehensive measurement for the effectiveness of a diagnostic test. For a continuous-scale diagnostic test, the optimal cut-point for the positive of disease is the cut-point leading to the maximization of the sum of sensitivity and specificity. Finding the Youden index of the test is equivalent to maximize the sum of sensitivity and specificity for all the possible values of the cut-point. In this thesis, we propose a new non-parametric confidence interval for the Youden index. Extensive simulation studies are conducted to compare the relative performance of the new interval with the existing intervals for the index. Our simulation results indicate that the newly developed non-parametric method performs as well as the existing parametric method but it has better finite sample performance than the existing non-parametric methods. The new method is flexible and easy to implement in practice. A real example is also used to illustrate the application of the proposed interval.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.57709/1059712

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