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Are there any differences between SAS and SUDAAN software in terms of handling the degrees of freedom?

April 26, 2017degrees differences Freedom handling SAS Software sudaan terms

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Are there any differences between SAS and SUDAAN software in terms of handling the degrees of freedom?

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For both SUDAAN and SAS Survey procedures, the degrees of freedom are calculated in the same way when looking at the entire sample population or in subgroups where all strata and PSUs are represented. However, when you analyze data on a subgroup of sample persons who may not be represented in all strata and PSUs (e.g., Mexican Americans), the degrees of freedom provided in the SUDAAN and SAS Survey Procedures output may differ. For example, SAS Survey procedures, such as proc surveymeans, compute the degrees of freedom as the number of clusters (PSUs) in the non-empty strata minus the number of non-empty strata. This means that if your data have empty strata (no persons in the population for either PSU) the number of degrees of freedom will increase. This is incorrect and SAS is currently working on correcting this problem.