A Note on Nonparametric Estimation of the Effective Dose in Quantal Bioassay

Abstract

For the common binary response model, we propose a direct method for the nonparametric estimation of the effective dose level. The estimator is obtained by the composition of a nonparametric estimate of the quantile response curve and a classical density estimate. The new method yields a simple and reliable monotone estimate of the effective dose-level curve α → EDα and is appealing to users of conventional smoothing methods as kernel estimators, local polynomials, series estimators, or smoothing splines. Moreover, it is computationally very efficient, because it does not require a numerical inversion of a monotonized estimate of the quantile dose-response curve. We prove asymptotic normality of the new estimate and compare it with an available alternative estimate (based on a monotonized nonparametric estimate of the dose-response curve and calculation of the inverse function) by means of a simulation study.