Computing for incomplete repeated measures

Repeated-measures experiments involve two or more intended measurements per subject. If the within-subjects design is the same for each subject and no data are missing, then the analysis is relatively simple and there are readily available programs that do the analysis automatically. However, if the data are incomplete, and do not have the same arrangement for each subject, then the analysis becomes much more difficult. Beginning with procedures that are not optimal but are comparatively simple, we discuss unbalanced linear model analysis and then normal maximum likelihood (ML) procedures. Included are ML and REML (restricted maximum likelihood) estimators for the mixed model and also estimators for a model that allows arbitrary within-subject covariance matrices. The objective is to give procedures that can be implemented with available software.