Analyzing Longitudinal Clinical Trial Data

Analyzing Longitudinal Clinical Trial Data: A Practical Guide provides practical and easy to implement approaches for bringing the latest theory on analysis of longitudinal clinical trial data into routine practice.The book, with its example-oriented approach that includes numerous SAS and R code fragments, is an essential resource for statisticians and graduate students specializing in medical research. The authors provide clear descriptions of the relevant statistical theory and illustrate practical considerations for modeling longitudinal data. Topics covered include choice of endpoint and statistical test; modeling means and the correlations between repeated measurements; accounting for covariates; modeling categorical data; model verification; methods for incomplete (missing) data that includes the latest developments in sensitivity analyses, along with approaches for and issues in choosing estimands; and means for preventing missing data. Each chapter stands alone in its coverage of a topic. The concluding chapters provide detailed advice on how to integrate these independent topics into an over-arching study development process and statistical analysis plan.

Review of the First Edition "The goal of this book, as stated by the authors, is to fill the knowledge gap that exists between developed statistical methods and the applications of these methods. Overall, this book achieves the goal successfully and does a nice job. I would highly recommend it ...The example-based approach is easy to follow and makes the book a very helpful desktop reference for many biostatistics methods."—Journal of Statistical Software Clinical Trial Data Analysis Using R and SAS, Second Edition provides a thorough presentation of biostatistical analyses of clinical trial data with step-by-step implementations using R and SAS. The book’s practical, detailed approach draws on the authors’ 30 years’ experience in biostatistical research and clinical development. The authors develop step-by-step analysis code using appropriate R packages and functions and SAS PROCS, which enables readers to gain an understanding of the analysis methods and R and SAS implementation so that they can use these two popular software packages to analyze their own clinical trial data. What’s New in the Second Edition Adds SAS programs along with the R programs for clinical trial data analysis. Updates all the statistical analysis with updated R packages. Includes correlated data analysis with multivariate analysis of variance. Applies R and SAS to clinical trial data from hypertension, duodenal ulcer, beta blockers, familial andenomatous polyposis, and breast cancer trials. Covers the biostatistical aspects of various clinical trials, including treatment comparisons, time-to-event endpoints, longitudinal clinical trials, and bioequivalence trials.

This second edition has been completely revised and expanded to become the most up-to-date and thorough professional reference text in this fast-moving area of biostatistics. It contains an additional two chapters on fully parametric models for discrete repeated measures data and statistical models for time-dependent predictors.

Focuses on the prevention and treatment of missing data in longitudinal clinical trials, looking at key principles and explaining analytic methods.

Although many books currently available describe statistical models and methods for analyzing longitudinal data, they do not highlight connections between various research threads in the statistical literature. Responding to this void, Longitudinal Data Analysis provides a clear, comprehensive, and unified overview of state-of-the-art theory

Methods and Applications of Longitudinal Data Analysis describes methods for the analysis of longitudinal data in the medical, biological and behavioral sciences. It introduces basic concepts and functions including a variety of regression models, and their practical applications across many areas of research. Statistical procedures featured within the text include: descriptive methods for delineating trends over time linear mixed regression models with both fixed and random effects covariance pattern models on correlated errors generalized estimating equations nonlinear regression models for categorical repeated measurements techniques for analyzing longitudinal data with non-ignorable missing observations Emphasis is given to applications of these methods, using substantial empirical illustrations, designed to help users of statistics better analyze and understand longitudinal data. Methods and Applications of Longitudinal Data Analysis equips both graduate students and professionals to confidently apply longitudinal data analysis to their particular discipline. It also provides a valuable reference source for applied statisticians, demographers and other quantitative methodologists. From novice to professional: this book starts with the introduction of basic models and ends with the description of some of the most advanced models in longitudinal data analysis Enables students to select the correct statistical methods to apply to their longitudinal data and avoid the pitfalls associated with incorrect selection Identifies the limitations of classical repeated measures models and describes newly developed techniques, along with real-world examples.

Too often in biostatistical research and clinical trials, a knowledge gap exists between developed statistical methods and the applications of these methods. Filling this gap, Clinical Trial Data Analysis Using R provides a thorough presentation of biostatistical analyses of clinical trial data and shows step by step how to implement the statistical methods using R. The book’s practical, detailed approach draws on the authors’ 30 years of real-world experience in biostatistical research and clinical development. Each chapter presents examples of clinical trials based on the authors’ actual experiences in clinical drug development. Various biostatistical methods for analyzing the data are then identified. The authors develop analysis code step by step using appropriate R packages and functions. This approach enables readers to gain an understanding of the analysis methods and R implementation so that they can use R to analyze their own clinical trial data. With step-by-step illustrations of R implementations, this book shows how to easily use R to simulate and analyze data from a clinical trial. It describes numerous up-to-date statistical methods and offers sound guidance on the processes involved in clinical trials.

Missing values and dropouts are common issues in longitudinal studies in all areas of medicine and public health. Intent-to-treat (ITT) analysis has become a widely accepted method for the analysis of controlled clinical trials. In most controlled clinical trials, some patients do not complete their intended followup according to the protocol for a variety of reasons; this problem generates missing values. Missing values lead to concern and confusion in identifying the ITT population, which makes the data analysis more complex and challenging. No adequate strategy exists for ITT analyses of longitudinal controlled clinical trial data with missing values. Several ad hoc strategies for dealing with missing values for an ITT analysis are common in the practice of controlled clinical trials. We performed a detailed investigation based on simulation studies to develop recommendations for this situation. We compared sizes (type I errors) and power between some popular ad hoc approaches and the linear mixed model approach under different missing value scenarios. Our results suggest that, for studies with a high percentage of missing values, the mixed model approach without any ad hoc imputation is more powerful than other options.