Statistical analysis for experimental models of ocular disease: Continuous response measures

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Abstract
Experimental designs in ophthalmologic research frequently treat both eyes of a subject in the same fashion: therapy with a specific drug or control. In these 2-eye designs, observations from the same subject are often positively correlated. Failure to account for this correlation is a serious error which overstates the precision of studies, resulting in falsely significant results. The statistical methods appropriate for studies where endpoints are quantitative were reviewed. The following were presented; the use of analysis of variance (t-test when there are 2 treatment conditions) to estimate differences between all experimental treatments; the use of contrasts to estimate differences between specific treatments and methods for analysis of data from multiple experiments. Because of the ubiquity of incorrect analysis of data from 2 eye designs in the ophthalmologic research literature and the serious consequences of this error, we propose a limited statistical review of manuscripts to acertain if the statistical analysis matched the experimental design.

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