On the appropriateness of marginal models for repeated measurements in clinical trials

[en] Although models developed directly to describe marginal distributions have become widespread in the analysis of repeated measurements, some of their disadvantages are not well enough known. These include producing profile curves that correspond to no possible individual, possibly showing that a treatment is superior on average when it is poorer for each individual subject, implicitly generating complex and implausible physiological explanations, including underdispersion in subgroups, and sometimes corresponding to no possible probabilistic data generating mechanism. We conclude that such marginal models may sometimes be appropriate for descriptive observational studies, such as sample surveys in epidemiology, but should only be used with great care in causal experimental settings, such as clinical trials.

Disciplines :

Mathematics

Author, co-author :

Lindsey, James ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Institut des sciences humaines et sociales > Institut des sciences humaines et sociales

Lambert, Philippe ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Institut des sciences humaines et sociales > Méthodes quantitatives en sciences sociales

Language :

English

Title :

On the appropriateness of marginal models for repeated measurements in clinical trials

Publication date :

1998

Journal title :

Statistics in Medicine

ISSN :

0277-6715

eISSN :

1097-0258

Publisher :

John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, United States - New Jersey

Volume :

Pages :

447-469

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Additional URL :

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/3116/abstract

Available on ORBi :

since 29 September 2009

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114

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