We use a Department of Veterans Affairs Cooperative Study entitled ‘A Psychophysiological
Study of Chronic Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder’9 to illustrate the preceding sample size
calculation for logistic regression with continuous covariates. The study developed and validated
a logistic regression model to explore the use of certain psychophysiological measurements for the
prognosis of combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In the study, patients’ four
psychophysiological measurements — heart rate, blood pressures, EMG and skin conductance
— were recorded while patients were exposed to video tapes containing combat and neutral scenes.
Among the psychophysiological variables, the difference of the heart rates obtained while viewing
the combat and the neutral tapes (DCNHR) is considered a good predictor of the diagnosis of
PTSD. The prevalence rate of PTSD among the Vietnam veterans was assumed to be 20 per cent.
Therefore, we assumed a four to one sample size ratio for the non-PTSD versus PTSD groups.
The effect size of DCNHR is approximately 0)3 which is the difference of the group means divided
by the standard deviation. With a two-sided significance level of 0)05 and a power of 95 per cent,
the required sample size based on a two-sample t-test is 905. The squared multiple correlation coefficient of DCNHR versus the other three psychophysiological variables was estimated to be
0)1 and thus the VIF is 1)11. After adjusting for the VIF, a sample size of 1005 was needed for
fitting a multiple logistic regression model.