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Issues with using baseline in last observation carried forward analysis
Author(s) -
Julious Steven A.,
Mullee Mark A.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
pharmaceutical statistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.421
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1539-1612
pISSN - 1539-1604
DOI - 10.1002/pst.311
Subject(s) - statistician , imputation (statistics) , annals , missing data , baseline (sea) , statistical analysis , statistics , computer science , mathematics , political science , history , law , ancient history
The topic of this paper was prompted by a study for which one of us was the statistician. It was submitted to Annals of Internal Medicine. The paper had positive reviewer comment; however, the statistical reviewer stated that for the analysis to be acceptable for publication, the missing data had to be accounted for in the analysis through the use of baseline in a last observation carried forward imputation. We discuss the issues associated with this form of imputation and recommend that it should not be undertaken as a primary analysis. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.