Home > Research > Publications & Outputs > A latent class model to multiply impute missing...

Links

Text available via DOI:

View graph of relations

A latent class model to multiply impute missing treatment indicators in observational studies when inferences of the treatment effect are made using propensity score matching

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

E-pub ahead of print
Article number2100284
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>31/03/2023
<mark>Journal</mark>Biometrical Journal
Issue number3
Volume65
Number of pages17
Publication StatusE-pub ahead of print
Early online date23/11/22
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

Analysts often estimate treatment effects in observational studies using propensity score matching techniques. When there are missing covariate values, analysts can multiply impute the missing data to create m completed data sets. Analysts can then estimate propensity scores on each of the completed data sets, and use these to estimate treatment effects. However, there has been relatively little attention on developing imputation models to deal with the additional problem of missing treatment indicators, perhaps due to the consequences of generating implausible imputations. However, simply ignoring the missing treatment values, akin to a complete case analysis, could also lead to problems when estimating treatment effects. We propose a latent class model to multiply impute missing treatment indicators. We illustrate its performance through simulations and with data taken from a study on determinants of children's cognitive development. This approach is seen to obtain treatment effect estimates closer to the true treatment effect than when employing conventional imputation procedures as well as compared to a complete case analysis.