STATISTICAL METHODOLOGY FOR MENTAL HEALTH RESEARCH

现代心理健康研究往往产生大量复杂的数据 集. 特别是，纵向研究，跟踪个人超过 时间测量每个时间点的各种变量，产生数据 通常由于存在缺失值而变得复杂， 从样品中提取。 调查数据以检测发病率并 抑郁症的流行涉及冗长的问卷调查， 精神障碍，并且经常被忽视的方法分析， 样品设计的复杂性。 收集这些数据集所需的工作量和费用是 相当大，因此使用最佳方法分析它们似乎是明智的 available. 然而，分析往往局限于相对基本的 统计方法 我们的目标是发展统计方法 对心理健康数据进行有效和适当的分析， 让其他研究人员也能使用这些方法。 NIMH研究人员面临的最常见问题之一是分析 不平衡的重复测量数据。 具有此结构的数据是 经常以低效和不适当的方法治疗， 艺术方法虽然是一种改进，但通常是基于假设的 可能不适合心理健康结果。 统计 测试主要基于大样本理论，这是不合适的 对于NIMH研究中经常收集的小数据集。 我们 我建议解决这两个问题，并进一步发展班级。 NIMH数据的有用重复测量模型。 我们研究的第二个重点是关于心理健康的分析 调查，重点是无答复调整。 离群值问题 而缺失数据往往是调查数据被留下的重要原因 不完全分析。 我们建议开发缺失数据调整 大大改进了简单的估算方法， 简单地丢弃不完整的案例。 我们的方法将建立在 最近开发的多重插补方法，以及常见的 单位无响应加权调整技术。

Modern mental health studies often result in large complicated data sets. In particular, longitudinal studies that follow individuals over time measure a variety of variables at each time point, yielding data that are often complicated by the presence of missing values or attrition from the sample. Survey data to detect the incidence and prevalence of depression involve lengthy questionnaires to measure mental disorders, and often are analyzed by methods that ignore complexities in the sample design. The effort and expense required to assemble these data sets is considerable, so it seems prudent to analyze them using the best methods available. However, often the analysis is confined to relatively basic statistical methods. Our objectives are to develop statistical methods for efficient and appropriate analysis of mental health data, and to make these methods accessible to other researchers. One of the most common problems facing NIMH researchers is the analysis of unbalanced repeated measures data. Data with this structure are often treated by inefficient and inappropriate methods, and state of the art methods, although an improvement, are usually based on assumptions that may not be appropriate for mental health outcomes. Statistical tests are largely based on large-sample theory, which is inappropriate for the small data sets that are often collected in NIMH studies. We propose to tackle these two problems, and to develop further the class of useful repeated measures models for NIMH data. A second focus of our research concerns the analysis of mental health surveys, with emphasis on nonresponse adjustments. Problems of outliers and missing data are often a significant reason why survey data are left incompletely analyzed. We propose to develop missing-data adjustments that improve considerably on naive methods of imputation, or methods that simply discard the incomplete cases. Our methods will build on the recently developed methodology of multiple imputation, and on the common technique of weighting adjustment for unit nonresponse.