Joint analysis of multiple longitudinal outcomes: application of a latent class model

We address the problem of joint analysis of more than one series of longitudinal measurements. The typical way of approaching this problem is as a joint mixed effects model for the two outcomes. Apart from the large number of parameters needed to specify such a model, perhaps the biggest drawback of this approach is the difficulty in interpreting the results of the model, particularly when the main interest is in the relation between the two longitudinal outcomes. Here we propose an alternative approach to this problem. We use a latent class joint model for the longitudinal outcomes in order to reduce the dimensionality of the problem. We then use a two-stage estimation procedure to estimate the parameters in this model. In the first stage, the latent classes, their probabilities and the mean and covariance structure are estimated based on the longitudinal data of the first outcome. In the second stage, we study the relation between the latent classes and patient characteristics and the other outcome(s). We apply the method to data from 195 consecutive lung cancer patients in two outpatient clinics of lung diseases in The Hague, and we study the relation between denial and longitudinal health measures. Our approach clearly revealed an interesting phenomenon: although no difference between classes could be detected for objective measures of health, patients in classes representing higher levels of denial consistently scored significantly higher in subjective measures of health.