# Factors affecting SE and power in lmer: how do I have lower SD&CV but higher SE and lower power?

I using simulated data sets to compare the ability to two different experimental designs (A and B) to detect a interaction between two variables (x and y) in determining the observed output (o). The results appear contradictory to me, and I think there must be an aspect of how lmer works that I'm not understanding that can explain this.

I am using lmer from the lmerTest package in r to fit the stimulated data to a model, and calculate the coefficient, SE of the coefficient, and p-value:

fit<-lmer(O~x+y+x*y+(1|subjectID),data)
c<-summary(fit)\$coefficients
p<-c['x:yTRUE','Pr(>|t|)']
beta<-c['x:yTRUE','Estimate']
betaSE<-c['x:yTRUE','Std. Error']


When I generate ~500 replicates of simulated data for each trial design (A and B), and run each replicate through this analysis, I find:

Design A has higher power (a larger fraction of the replicates find a statistically significant effect) and lower mean betaSE (as defined above), despite the fact that Design B has a similar magnitude of mean beta, a significantly smaller standard deviation of the beta (SD calculated across the replicates).

What should this be telling me about why Design B has lower power to detect a significant effect?

EDIT: Designs A and B are two different clinical trial designs where participants spend different amounts of time on open label drug and blinded drug vs placebo. The simulated data are created with a complex set of flexible assumptions about the relationships between 3 factors in a model of symptom burden over time as a function of time, expectancy and drug response. These assumptions are used to create a covariance matrix, which is then used by mvrnorm to generate simulated factor-level data as per the specified covariance matrix. The factors are summed to create simulated data that represents what would actually be produced by a clinical trial. This data is what is analyzed using the above methods.

• Please provide some information about how trial designs A and B differ and how you generated the simulated data sets for those designs.
– EdM
Feb 17, 2020 at 18:52
• The designs/simulations are complex, but I have attempted to add what seems like the most relevant information above... thanks for considering the question! Feb 17, 2020 at 20:15