Sensitivity analysis for pattern mixture models

Incomplete series of data is a common feature in quality-of-life studies, in particular in chronic diseases where attrition of patients is high. Two alternative approaches to modeling longitudinal data with incomplete measurements have frequently been proposed in the literature, selection models and pattern-mixture models. In this paper we focus on, by way of sensitivity analysis, extrapolating incomplete patterns using identifying restrictions. Perhaps the best known ones are so-called complete case missing value restrictions (CCMV), where for a given pattern, the conditional distribution of the missing data, given the observed data, is equated to its counterpart in the completers. Available case missing value (ACMV) restrictions equate this conditional density to the one calculated from the subgroup of all patterns for which all required components have been observed. Neighboring case missing value restrictions (NCMV) equate this conditional density to the one calculated from the the pattern with one additional measurement obtained. In this paper, these three identifying restriction strategies are used to multiply impute missing data in a study in metastatic prostate cancer. Multiple imputation is employed to reduce the uncertainty of single imputation. It is shown how hypothesis testing and sensitivity analyses are carried out in this setting.