Document Detail


Neuropsychological changes in children with cancer: the treatment of missing data in longitudinal studies.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  7881457     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
Researchers conducting longitudinal studies with children or adults are inevitably confronted with problems of attrition and missing data. Missing data in longitudinal studies is frequently handled by excluding from analyses those cases for whom data are incomplete. This approach to missing data is not optimal. On the one hand, if data are missing at random, then dropping incomplete cases ignores information collected on those cases that could be used to improve estimates of population parameters (e.g., means, variances, covariances, and growth rates) and improve the power of significance tests of statistical hypotheses. On the other hand, if data are not missing at random, then dropping incomplete cases leads to biased parameter estimates and hypothesis tests that may be internally and externally invalid. This study uses three years of follow-up data from a longitudinal investigation of neuropsychological outcomes of cancer in children to demonstrate the problems presented by missing data in repeated measures designs and some solutions. In evaluating potential biasing effects of attrition, the study extends previous research on neuropsychological outcomes in pediatric cancer by inclusion of patients whose disease had relapsed, and by comparison of surviving and nonsurviving patients. Although the data presented have specific relevance to the study of neuropsychological outcome in pediatric cancer, the problems of missing data and the solutions presented are relevant to a wide variety of diseases and conditions of interest to researchers in child and adult neuropsychology.
Authors:
D J Francis; D R Copeland; B D Moore
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Publication Detail:
Type:  Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.; Review    
Journal Detail:
Title:  Neuropsychology review     Volume:  4     ISSN:  1040-7308     ISO Abbreviation:  Neuropsychol Rev     Publication Date:  1994 Sep 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  1995-04-13     Completed Date:  1995-04-13     Revised Date:  2007-11-14    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  9009029     Medline TA:  Neuropsychol Rev     Country:  UNITED STATES    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  199-222     Citation Subset:  IM    
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Texas 77204-5341.
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MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Adolescent
Age Factors
Bias (Epidemiology)
Child
Child, Preschool
Follow-Up Studies
Hodgkin Disease / diagnosis
Humans
Leukemia / diagnosis
Longitudinal Studies
Models, Statistical
Neoplasms / diagnosis*,  psychology
Neuropsychological Tests / statistics & numerical data*
Osteosarcoma / diagnosis
Recurrence
Research Design / standards*
Treatment Outcome
Grant Support
ID/Acronym/Agency:
CA-33097/CA/NCI NIH HHS; HD 28172/HD/NICHD NIH HHS

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