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Random Assumption (random + assumption)
Selected AbstractsThe Weighted Generalized Estimating Equations Approach for the Evaluation of Medical Diagnostic Test at Subunit LevelBIOMETRICAL JOURNAL, Issue 5 2006Carol Y. Lin Abstract Sensitivity and specificity are common measures used to evaluate the performance of a diagnostic test. A diagnostic test is often administrated at a subunit level, e.g. at the level of vessel, ear or eye of a patient so that the treatment can be targeted at the specific subunit. Therefore, it is essential to evaluate the diagnostic test at the subunit level. Often patients with more negative subunit test results are less likely to receive the gold standard tests than patients with more positive subunit test results. To account for this type of missing data and correlation between subunit test results, we proposed a weighted generalized estimating equations (WGEE) approach to evaluate subunit sensitivities and specificities. A simulation study was conducted to evaluate the performance of the WGEE estimators and the weighted least squares (WLS) estimators (Barnhart and Kosinski, 2003) under a missing at random assumption. The results suggested that WGEE estimator is consistent under various scenarios of percentage of missing data and sample size, while the WLS approach could yield biased estimators due to a misspecified missing data mechanism. We illustrate the methodology with a cardiology example. (© 2006 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source] Extensions of the Penalized Spline of Propensity Prediction Method of ImputationBIOMETRICS, Issue 3 2009Guangyu Zhang SummaryLittle and An (2004,,Statistica Sinica,14, 949,968) proposed a penalized spline of propensity prediction (PSPP) method of imputation of missing values that yields robust model-based inference under the missing at random assumption. The propensity score for a missing variable is estimated and a regression model is fitted that includes the spline of the estimated logit propensity score as a covariate. The predicted unconditional mean of the missing variable has a double robustness (DR) property under misspecification of the imputation model. We show that a simplified version of PSPP, which does not center other regressors prior to including them in the prediction model, also has the DR property. We also propose two extensions of PSPP, namely, stratified PSPP and bivariate PSPP, that extend the DR property to inferences about conditional means. These extended PSPP methods are compared with the PSPP method and simple alternatives in a simulation study and applied to an online weight loss study conducted by Kaiser Permanente. [source] On Estimation of the Survivor Average Causal Effect in Observational Studies When Important Confounders Are Missing Due to DeathBIOMETRICS, Issue 2 2009Brian L. Egleston Summary We focus on estimation of the causal effect of treatment on the functional status of individuals at a fixed point in time t* after they have experienced a catastrophic event, from observational data with the following features: (i) treatment is imposed shortly after the event and is nonrandomized, (ii) individuals who survive to t* are scheduled to be interviewed, (iii) there is interview nonresponse, (iv) individuals who die prior to t* are missing information on preevent confounders, and (v) medical records are abstracted on all individuals to obtain information on postevent, pretreatment confounding factors. To address the issue of survivor bias, we seek to estimate the survivor average causal effect (SACE), the effect of treatment on functional status among the cohort of individuals who would survive to t* regardless of whether or not assigned to treatment. To estimate this effect from observational data, we need to impose untestable assumptions, which depend on the collection of all confounding factors. Because preevent information is missing on those who die prior to t*, it is unlikely that these data are missing at random. We introduce a sensitivity analysis methodology to evaluate the robustness of SACE inferences to deviations from the missing at random assumption. We apply our methodology to the evaluation of the effect of trauma center care on vitality outcomes using data from the National Study on Costs and Outcomes of Trauma Care. [source] A Latent-Class Mixture Model for Incomplete Longitudinal Gaussian DataBIOMETRICS, Issue 1 2008Caroline Beunckens Summary In the analyses of incomplete longitudinal clinical trial data, there has been a shift, away from simple methods that are valid only if the data are missing completely at random, to more principled ignorable analyses, which are valid under the less restrictive missing at random assumption. The availability of the necessary standard statistical software nowadays allows for such analyses in practice. While the possibility of data missing not at random (MNAR) cannot be ruled out, it is argued that analyses valid under MNAR are not well suited for the primary analysis in clinical trials. Rather than either forgetting about or blindly shifting to an MNAR framework, the optimal place for MNAR analyses is within a sensitivity-analysis context. One such route for sensitivity analysis is to consider, next to selection models, pattern-mixture models or shared-parameter models. The latter can also be extended to a latent-class mixture model, the approach taken in this article. The performance of the so-obtained flexible model is assessed through simulations and the model is applied to data from a depression trial. [source] | ||||||||||