Reflection on modern methods: a note on variance estimation when using inverse probability weighting to handle attrition in cohort studies - Université de Rennes Accéder directement au contenu
Pré-Publication, Document De Travail Année : 2021

Reflection on modern methods: a note on variance estimation when using inverse probability weighting to handle attrition in cohort studies

Résumé

The inverse probability weighting (IPW) method is used to handle attrition in association analyses derived from cohort studies. It consists in weighting the respondents at a given follow-up by their inverse probability to participate. Weights are estimated first and then used in a weighted association model. When the IPW method is used, instead of using a so-called naïve variance estimator, the literature recommends using a robust variance estimator. However, the latter may overestimate the variance because the weights are considered known rather than estimated. In this note, we develop, by a linearization technique, an estimator accounting for the weight estimation phase and explain how it differs from naïve and robust variance estimators. We compare the three variance estimators through simulations under several MAR and MNAR scenarios. We found that both the robust and linearized variance estimators were approximately unbiased, even in MNAR scenarios. The naive variance estimator severely underestimated the variance. We encourage researchers to be careful with variance estimation when using the IPW method, avoiding naïve estimator and opting for a robust or linearized estimator. R and SAS codes are provided to implement them in their own studies.
Fichier principal
Vignette du fichier
NoteMethodologique_IRSET_Submitted_v2.pdf (854.08 Ko) Télécharger le fichier
Origine : Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s)

Dates et versions

hal-03208483 , version 1 (28-04-2021)
hal-03208483 , version 2 (30-04-2021)
hal-03208483 , version 3 (17-05-2021)

Identifiants

Citer

Marie-Astrid Metten, Nathalie Costet, J.-F. Viel, Guillaume Chauvet. Reflection on modern methods: a note on variance estimation when using inverse probability weighting to handle attrition in cohort studies. 2021. ⟨hal-03208483v3⟩
291 Consultations
619 Téléchargements

Altmetric

Partager

Gmail Facebook X LinkedIn More