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Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Statistics and Probability

University of Massachusetts Amherst

2022

Causal inference

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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Estimation Of Causal Effects In Complex Clustered Data, Joshua R. Nugent Oct 2022

Estimation Of Causal Effects In Complex Clustered Data, Joshua R. Nugent

Doctoral Dissertations

Analysis of clustered data from randomized trials or observational data often poses theoretical and practical statistical challenges, including but not limited to small numbers of independent units, many adjustment variables, continuous exposures, and/or differential clustering across trial arms. Further, commonly-used parametric methods rely on assumptions that may be violated in practice. Motivated by three scientific questions in public health, methods are developed and/or demonstrated for non-parametric estimation of causal effects. In Chapter 1, methods are elaborated for a cluster randomized trial (CRT) with missing individual-level data at baseline and follow-up, a complex sampling strategy, and limited number of clusters. Chapter …


Bayesian Hierarchical Temporal Modeling And Targeted Learning With Application To Reproductive Health, Herbert P. Susmann Oct 2022

Bayesian Hierarchical Temporal Modeling And Targeted Learning With Application To Reproductive Health, Herbert P. Susmann

Doctoral Dissertations

The international community via the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals has set the target of universal access to reproductive health-care services, including family planning, by 2030. Progress towards reaching this goal is assessed by tracking appropriate demographic and health indicators at national and subnational levels. This task is challenging, however, in populations where relevant data are limited or of low quality. Statistical models are then needed to estimate and project demographic and health indicators in populations based on the available data. Our first contribution, in Chapter 1, is to unify many existing demographic and health indicator models by proposing an …


Impact Of Loss To Follow-Up And Time Parameterization In Multiple-Period Cluster Randomized Trials And Assessing The Association Between Institution Affiliation And Journal Publication, Jonathan Moyer Mar 2022

Impact Of Loss To Follow-Up And Time Parameterization In Multiple-Period Cluster Randomized Trials And Assessing The Association Between Institution Affiliation And Journal Publication, Jonathan Moyer

Doctoral Dissertations

Difference-in-difference cluster randomized trials (CRTs) use baseline and post-test measurements. Standard power equations for these trials assume no loss to follow-up. We present a general equation for calculating treatment effect variance in difference-in-difference CRTs, with special cases assuming loss to follow-up with replacement of lost participants and loss to follow-up with no replacement but retaining the baseline measurements of all participants. Multiple-period CRTs can represent time as continuous using random coefficients (RC) or categorical using repeated measures ANOVA (RM-ANOVA) analytic models. Previous work recommends the use of RC over RM-ANOVA for CRTs with more than two periods because RC exhibited …