Unified inference for sparse and dense longitudinal models.

In longitudinal data analysis, statistical inference for sparse data and dense data could be substantially different. For kernel smoothing estimate of the mean function, the convergence rates and limiting variance functions are different under the two scenarios. The latter phenomenon poses challenges for statistical inference as a subjective choice between the sparse and dense cases may lead to wrong conclusions. We develop self-normalization based methods that can adapt to the sparse and dense cases in a unified framework. Simulations show that the proposed methods outperform some existing methods.