1. Software for handling and replacement of missing data
- Author
-
Mayer, Benjamin, Muche, Rainer, and Hohl, Kathrin
- Subjects
missing values ,missing value software ,Computer applications to medicine. Medical informatics ,R858-859.7 ,Infectious and parasitic diseases ,RC109-216 - Abstract
In medical research missing values often arise in the course of a data analysis. This fact constitutes a problem for different reasons, so e.g. standard methods for analyzing data lead to biased estimates and a loss of statistical power due to missing values, since those methods require complete data sets and therefore omit incomplete cases for the analyses. Furthermore missing values imply a certain loss of information for what reason the validity of results of a study with missing values has to be rated less than in a case where all data had been available. For years there are methods for replacement of missing values (Rubin, Schafer) to tackle these problems and solve them in parts. Hence in this article we want to present the existing software to handle and replace missing values on the one hand and give an outline about the available options to get information on the other hand. The methodological aspects of the replacement strategies are delineated just briefly in this article.
- Published
- 2009