The Use of a Correlated Binomial Model for the Analysis of Certain Toxicological Experiments

Abstract
In certain toxicological experiments with laboratory animals, the outcome of interest is the occurrence of dead or malformed fetuses in a litter. Previous investigations have shown that the simple 1-parameter binomial and Poisson models generally provide poor fits to this type of binary data. A type of correlated binomial model is proposed for use in this situation. The model is described in detail and is compared to a beta-binomial model proposed by Williams. These 2-parameter models are then contrasted for goodness of fit to some real-life data. Numerical examples are given in which likelihood ratio tests based on these models are employed to assess the significance of treatment-control differences.