Cancer Patients Missing Pain Score Information:- Application with Imputation Techniques

Background: Methods for handling missing data in clinical research have been getting more attentions over last few years. Contemplation of missing data in any study is vital as they may lead to considerable biases and can have an impact on the power of the study. Objective: This manuscript is dedic...

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Main Authors: Gajendra Vishwakarma, Atanu Bhattacharjee, Jesna Jose, Ramesh V
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Milano University Press 2016-12-01
Series:Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Public Health
Online Access:http://ebph.it/article/view/11916
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author Gajendra Vishwakarma
Atanu Bhattacharjee
Jesna Jose
Ramesh V
author_facet Gajendra Vishwakarma
Atanu Bhattacharjee
Jesna Jose
Ramesh V
author_sort Gajendra Vishwakarma
collection DOAJ
description Background: Methods for handling missing data in clinical research have been getting more attentions over last few years. Contemplation of missing data in any study is vital as they may lead to considerable biases and can have an impact on the power of the study. Objective: This manuscript is dedicated to present different techniques to handle missing observations obtained from repeatedly measured pain score data on palliative cancer. Methods: This problem caused by subjects drop out before completion of the study. The reason for dropout or withdrawal may be related to study (e.g., adverse event, death, unpleasant study procedures, lack of improvement) or unrelated to the study (e.g., moving away, unrelated disease). The dropout might be very common on studies on palliative cancer patients. The Palliative treatment is designed to relieve symptoms, and improve the quality of life and can be used at any stage of an illness if there are troubling symptoms, such as pain or sickness. Results: The mean(SD) of observed pain score was 3.638(3.156) whereas the imputed mean values were 3.615(2.980), 3.618(2.954), 3.577(2.892), 3.560(2.999) and 3.627(2.949) respectively for the imputation methods regression, predictive mean matching, propensity score, EM algorithm and MCMC methods for pain score values at visit3.  Interpretation and Conclusion: The EM algorithm shows the least percentage change from observed values in both visits followed by predictive mean matching method and MCMC methods. The multiple imputation techniques have few advantages; the imputed values are drawsfrom a distribution, so they inherently contain some variation by introducing an additional form of error in the parameter estimates across the imputation Key words: EM algorithm, Regression method, Imputation, Handling Missing Data
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spelling doaj-art-941283d2cfc74b28b23ad1ae82e2bfd02025-08-20T03:19:38ZengMilano University PressEpidemiology, Biostatistics and Public Health2282-09302016-12-0113410.2427/1191610800Cancer Patients Missing Pain Score Information:- Application with Imputation TechniquesGajendra Vishwakarma0Atanu Bhattacharjee1Jesna Jose2Ramesh V3Department of Applied Mathematics, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad-826004, Jharkhand, IndiaDivision of Clinical Research and Biostatistics, Malabar Cancer Centre, Thalassery-670103, Kerala, IndiaDepartment of Applied Mathematics, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad-826004, Jharkhand, IndiaDepartment of Statistics,Gauhati University, IndiaBackground: Methods for handling missing data in clinical research have been getting more attentions over last few years. Contemplation of missing data in any study is vital as they may lead to considerable biases and can have an impact on the power of the study. Objective: This manuscript is dedicated to present different techniques to handle missing observations obtained from repeatedly measured pain score data on palliative cancer. Methods: This problem caused by subjects drop out before completion of the study. The reason for dropout or withdrawal may be related to study (e.g., adverse event, death, unpleasant study procedures, lack of improvement) or unrelated to the study (e.g., moving away, unrelated disease). The dropout might be very common on studies on palliative cancer patients. The Palliative treatment is designed to relieve symptoms, and improve the quality of life and can be used at any stage of an illness if there are troubling symptoms, such as pain or sickness. Results: The mean(SD) of observed pain score was 3.638(3.156) whereas the imputed mean values were 3.615(2.980), 3.618(2.954), 3.577(2.892), 3.560(2.999) and 3.627(2.949) respectively for the imputation methods regression, predictive mean matching, propensity score, EM algorithm and MCMC methods for pain score values at visit3.  Interpretation and Conclusion: The EM algorithm shows the least percentage change from observed values in both visits followed by predictive mean matching method and MCMC methods. The multiple imputation techniques have few advantages; the imputed values are drawsfrom a distribution, so they inherently contain some variation by introducing an additional form of error in the parameter estimates across the imputation Key words: EM algorithm, Regression method, Imputation, Handling Missing Datahttp://ebph.it/article/view/11916
spellingShingle Gajendra Vishwakarma
Atanu Bhattacharjee
Jesna Jose
Ramesh V
Cancer Patients Missing Pain Score Information:- Application with Imputation Techniques
Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Public Health
title Cancer Patients Missing Pain Score Information:- Application with Imputation Techniques
title_full Cancer Patients Missing Pain Score Information:- Application with Imputation Techniques
title_fullStr Cancer Patients Missing Pain Score Information:- Application with Imputation Techniques
title_full_unstemmed Cancer Patients Missing Pain Score Information:- Application with Imputation Techniques
title_short Cancer Patients Missing Pain Score Information:- Application with Imputation Techniques
title_sort cancer patients missing pain score information application with imputation techniques
url http://ebph.it/article/view/11916
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AT jesnajose cancerpatientsmissingpainscoreinformationapplicationwithimputationtechniques
AT rameshv cancerpatientsmissingpainscoreinformationapplicationwithimputationtechniques