Multivariate test power approximations for balanced linear mixed models in studies with missing data

Multilevel and longitudinal studies are frequently subject to missing data. For example, biomarker studies for oral cancer may involve multiple assays for each participant. Assays may fail, resulting in missing data values that can be assumed to be missing completely at random. Catellier and Muller proposed a data analytic technique to account for data missing at random in multilevel and longitudinal studies. They suggested modifying the degrees of freedom for both the Hotelling-Lawley trace F statistic and its null case reference distribution. We propose parallel adjustments to approximate power for this multivariate test in studies with missing data. The power approximations use a modified non-central F statistic, which is a function of (i) the expected number of complete cases, (ii) the expected number of non-missing pairs of responses, or (iii) the trimmed sample size, which is the planned sample size reduced by the anticipated proportion of missing data. The accuracy of the method is assessed by comparing the theoretical results to the Monte Carlo simulated power for the Catellier and Muller multivariate test. Over all experimental conditions, the closest approximation to the empirical power of the Catellier and Muller multivariate test is obtained by adjusting power calculations with the expected number of complete cases. The utility of the method is demonstrated with a multivariate power analysis for a hypothetical oral cancer biomarkers study. We describe how to implement the method using standard, commercially available software products and give example code. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.