Use of the mean, hot deck and multiple imputation techniques to predict outcome in intensive care unit patients in Colombia.

A cohort of intensive care unit (ICU) patients in 20 Colombian ICUs is used to describe the application of three imputation techniques: single, hot deck and multiple imputation. These strategies were used to impute the missing data in the variables used to construct APACHE II scores, a scoring system for the ICU patients that provides an unbiased standardized estimate of the probability of hospital death. Imputed APACHE II scores were then used in the APACHE II model to estimate adjusted hospital mortality rates. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to compare imputation strategies with respect to predictive power. While statistically significant differences were found for the area under the ROC curve, these differences were not clinically significant. Copyright 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.