Multiple imputation of multilevel count data. | Dr. Kristian Kleinke

Multiple imputation of multilevel count data.

Abstract

Throughout the last couple of years, multiple imputation has become a popular and widely accepted tech- nique to handle missing data. Although various multiple imputation procedures have been implemented in all major statistical packages, currently available software is still highly limited regarding the imputa- tion of incomplete count data. As count data analysis typically makes it necessary to fit statistical models that are suited for count data like Poisson or negative binomial models, also imputation procedures should be specially tailored to the statistical specialities of count data. We present a flexible and easy to use so- lution to create multiple imputations of incomplete multilevel count data, based on a generalized linear mixed effects Poisson model with multivariate normal random effects, using penalized quasi-likelihood. Our procedure works as an add-on for the popular and powerful multiple imputation package mice (van Buuren & Groothuis-Oudshoorn, 2011) for the R language and environment for statistical computing.

Publication
In U. Engel, B. Jann, P. Lynn, A. Scherpenzeel, and P. Sturgis (Eds.), Improving Survey Methods: Lessons from Recent Research (pp. 381–396). New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis