Mark A Ferro1. 1. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Offord Centre for Child Studies, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Electronic address: ferroma@mcmaster.ca.
Abstract
PURPOSE: The aim of this research was to examine, in an exploratory manner, whether cross-sectional multiple imputation generates valid parameter estimates for a latent growth curve model in a longitudinal data set with nonmonotone missingness. METHODS: A simulated longitudinal data set of N = 5000 was generated and consisted of a continuous dependent variable, assessed at three measurement occasions and a categorical time-invariant independent variable. Missing data had a nonmonotone pattern and the proportion of missingness increased from the initial to the final measurement occasion (5%-20%). Three methods were considered to deal with missing data: listwise deletion, full-information maximum likelihood, and multiple imputation. A latent growth curve model was specified and analysis of variance was used to compare parameter estimates between the full data set and missing data approaches. RESULTS: Multiple imputation resulted in significantly lower slope variance compared with the full data set. There were no differences in any parameter estimates between the multiple imputation and full-information maximum likelihood approaches. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggested that in longitudinal studies with nonmonotone missingness, cross-sectional imputation at each time point may be viable and produces estimates comparable with those obtained with full-information maximum likelihood. Future research pursuing the validity of this method is warranted.
PURPOSE: The aim of this research was to examine, in an exploratory manner, whether cross-sectional multiple imputation generates valid parameter estimates for a latent growth curve model in a longitudinal data set with nonmonotone missingness. METHODS: A simulated longitudinal data set of N = 5000 was generated and consisted of a continuous dependent variable, assessed at three measurement occasions and a categorical time-invariant independent variable. Missing data had a nonmonotone pattern and the proportion of missingness increased from the initial to the final measurement occasion (5%-20%). Three methods were considered to deal with missing data: listwise deletion, full-information maximum likelihood, and multiple imputation. A latent growth curve model was specified and analysis of variance was used to compare parameter estimates between the full data set and missing data approaches. RESULTS: Multiple imputation resulted in significantly lower slope variance compared with the full data set. There were no differences in any parameter estimates between the multiple imputation and full-information maximum likelihood approaches. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggested that in longitudinal studies with nonmonotone missingness, cross-sectional imputation at each time point may be viable and produces estimates comparable with those obtained with full-information maximum likelihood. Future research pursuing the validity of this method is warranted.
Authors: Kristie L Poole; Louis A Schmidt; Saroj Saigal; Michael H Boyle; Katherine M Morrison; Ryan J Van Lieshout Journal: J Appl Dev Psychol Date: 2018-02-15
Authors: Aurora Zanghì; Carlo Avolio; Maria Pia Amato; Massimo Filippi; Maria Trojano; Francesco Patti; Emanuele D'Amico Journal: Eur J Neurol Date: 2021-07-30 Impact factor: 6.288