Abstract
A common problem in the meta analysis of continuous data is that some studies do not report sufficient information to calculate the standard deviation (SDs) of the treatment effect. One of the approaches in handling this problem is through imputation. This article examines the empirical implications of imputing the missing SDs on the standard error (SE) of the overall meta analysis estimate. The simulation results show that if the SDs are missing under Missing Completely at Random and Missing at Random mechanism, imputation is recommended. With non random missing, imputation can lead to overestimation of the SE of the estimate.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 513-526 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Journal | Communications in Statistics - Simulation and Computation |
| Volume | 38 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2009 |
Keywords
- imputation
- MCAR
- meta analysis
- missing SDs
- standard error