Correspondence: Some general points regarding Ledberg and Wennberg, BMC Medical Research Methodology 2014 April 27;14:58. Issue 1 (December 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Böhning, Dankmar; van der Heijden, Peter
• Is Part Of: BMC medical research methodology. Volume 15:Issue 1(2015)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 5
• Publication Date: 2015-12
• Subjects: Medicine -- Research -- Methodology -- Periodicals; 610.72
• DOI: 10.1186/s12874-015-0043-9
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1471-2288

Abstract

Abstract The purpose of this note is to contribute some general points on a recent paper by Ledberg and Wennberg (BMC Med Res Meth 14:58, 2014) which need to be rectified. They advocate the capture-removal estimator. First, we will discuss drawbacks of this estimator in comparison to the Lincoln-Petersen estimator. Second, we show that their evaluation of the Chao estimator is flawed. We conclude that some statements in Ledberg and Wennberg with respect to Chao's estimator and removal estimation need to be taken with great caution.