Improving Regression Analysis with Imputation in a Longitudinal Study of Alzheimer's Disease.

Background Missing data is prevalent in the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI). It is common to deal with missingness by removing subjects with missing entries prior to statistical analysis; however, this can lead to significant efficiency loss and sometimes bias. It has yet to be demonstrated that the imputation approach to handling this issue can be valuable in some longitudinal regression settings. Objective The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the importance of imputation and how imputation is correctly done in ADNI by analyzing longitudinal Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale -Cognitive Subscale 13 (ADAS-Cog 13) scores and their association with baseline patient characteristics. Methods We studied 1,063 subjects in ADNI with mild cognitive impairment. Longitudinal ADAS-Cog 13 scores were modeled with a linear mixed-effects model with baseline clinical and demographic characteristics as predictors. The model estimates obtained without imputation were compared with those obtained after imputation with Multiple Imputation by Chained Equations (MICE). We justify application of MICE by investigating the missing data mechanism and model assumptions. We also assess robustness of the results to the choice of imputation method. Results The fixed-effects estimates of the linear mixed-effects model after imputation with MICE yield valid, tighter confidence intervals, thus improving the efficiency of the analysis when compared to the analysis done without imputation. Conclusions Our study demonstrates the importance of accounting for missing data in ADNI. When deciding to perform imputation, care should be taken in choosing the approach, as an invalid one can compromise the statistical analyses.