These methods all use frequentist approaches to estimate prevalence and confidence limits, assuming a fixed pool size and perfect (100%) test sensitivity and specificity, as described below.
Este método (Método 2 deCowling et al. (1999) o Sacks et al. (1989)) assumes 100% test sensitivity and specificity and fixed pool size. Confidence limits are based on a normal approximation and may be <0 for low prevalence values.
La prevalencia se estima como:
y el error estándar (SE (p)) se estima como la raíz cuadrada de la varianza, dada por:
donde:
Los límites de confianza asintóticos se calculan utilizando la aproximación normal:

donde
es la variable normal estandarizada correspondiente al límite de confianza deseado.
Las entradas requeridas para este método son:
Pool size, number of pools and number of pools positive must be positive integers and the number of positive pools must be less than the number of pools tested. Upper and lower confidence limits must be >0 and <1.
Las salidas incluyen:
The algorithm used to estimate prevalence and confidence limits fails if either all or none of the pools are positive. In these cases the point estimates are 100% and 0% respectively.
Este método (Método 3 deCowling et al. (1999)) assumes 100% test sensitivity and specificity and fixed pool size. Exact confidence limits are calculated based on binomial theory, so that confidence limits are never <0 or >1.
La prevalencia y la varianza se estiman como paraMétodo 1:
y:
donde:
Exact confidence limits are estimated by calculating the corresponding binomial confidence limits for the proportion of positive pools and then transforming these back to individual-level prevalence values using the equation for estimating prevalence from Método 1.
Las entradas requeridas para este método son:
Pool size, number of pools and number of pools positive must be positive integers and the number of positive pools must be less than the number of pools tested. Upper and lower confidence limits must be >0 and <1.
Las salidas incluyen:
The algorithm used to estimate prevalence and confidence limits fails if either all or none of the pools are positive. In these cases the point estimates are 100% and 0% respectively.