EBM NOTEBOOK
Research methods journal club: a gentle introduction to imputation of missing values
University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Missing values are a common problem for researchers to deal with. A range of approaches can be used for this—from ignoring them and analysing "complete data" to imputing them through a model involving the observed (non-missing) data. The review by Donders et al 1 introduces the subject by presenting how missing data arise, describing the choices available for dealing with missing data, and arguing in favour of using multiple imputations above other forms of imputation—including ignoring them.
Deciding how to handle missing data will depend on their characteristics: missing not at random (MNAR), missing at random (MAR), and missing completely at random (MCAR). MNAR arises when the reason for missing data depends directly on information that is not observed (eg, income data missing for those with highest income); while MCAR arises when there is no relation between the characteristics of the participant and the missing data (eg, data lost due to
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
