Sample Size, $n_B$

Power, $1-\beta$

Type I error rate, $\alpha$



X-axis

min

max


Calculate Sample Size Needed to Compare 2 Means: 2-Sample Equivalence


This calculator is useful when we wish to test whether the means of two groups are equivalent, without concern of which group's mean is larger. Suppose we collect a sample from a group 'A' and a group 'B'; that is we collect two samples, and will conduct a two-sample test. For example, we may wish to test whether a new product is equivalent to an existing, industry standard product. Here, the 'burden of proof', so to speak, falls on the new product; that is, equivalence is actually represented by the alternative, rather than the null hypothesis.

$H_0:|\mu_A-\mu_B|\ge\delta$
$H_1:|\mu_A-\mu_B|<\delta$

where $\delta$ is the superiority or non-inferiority margin and the ratio between the sample sizes of the two groups is
$$\kappa=\frac{n_1}{n_2}$$

Formulas

This calculator uses the following formulas to compute sample size and power, respectively: $$ n_A=\kappa n_B \;\text{ and }\; n_B=\left(1+\frac{1}{\kappa}\right) \left(\sigma\frac{z_{1-\alpha}+z_{1-\beta/2}}{|\mu_A-\mu_B|-\delta}\right)^2$$
$$1-\beta= 2\left[\Phi\left(z-z_{1-\alpha}\right)+\Phi\left(-z-z_{1-\alpha}\right)\right]-1 \quad ,\quad z=\frac{|\mu_A-\mu_B|-\delta}{\sigma\sqrt{\frac{1}{n_A}+\frac{1}{n_B}}}$$
where

R Code

R code to implement these functions:

muA=5
muB=4
delta=5
kappa=1
sd=10
alpha=0.05
beta=0.20
(nB=(1+1/kappa)*(sd*(qnorm(1-alpha)+qnorm(1-beta/2))/(abs(muA-muB)-delta))^2)
ceiling(nB) # 108
z=(abs(muA-muB)-delta)/(sd*sqrt((1+1/kappa)/nB))
(Power=2*(pnorm(z-qnorm(1-alpha))+pnorm(-z-qnorm(1-alpha)))-1)

References

Chow S, Shao J, Wang H. 2008. Sample Size Calculations in Clinical Research. 2nd Ed. Chapman & Hall/CRC Biostatistics Series. page 62.