Regression Trees for Longitudinal Data

While studying response trajectory, often the population of interest may be diverse enough to exist distinct subgroups within it and the longitudinal change in response may not be uniform in these subgroups. That is, the timeslope and/or influence of covariates in longitudinal profile may vary among these different subgroups. For example, Raudenbush (2001) used depression as an example to argue that it is incorrect to assume that all the people in a given population would be experiencing either increasing or decreasing levels of depression. In such cases, traditional linear mixed effects model (assuming common parametric form for covariates and time) is not directly applicable for the entire population as a group-averaged trajectory can mask important subgroup differences. Our aim is to identify and characterize longitudinally homogeneous subgroups based on the combination of baseline covariates in the most parsimonious way. This goal can be achieved via constructing regression tree for longitudinal data using baseline covariates as partitioning variables. We have proposed LongCART algorithm to construct regression tree for the longitudinal data. In each node, the proposed LongCART algorithm determines the need for further splitting (i.e. whether parameter(s) of longitudinal profile is influenced by any baseline attributes) via parameter instability tests and thus the decision of further splitting is type-I error controlled. We have obtained the asymptotic results for the proposed instability test and examined finite sample behavior of the whole algorithm through simulation studies. Finally, we have applied the LongCART algorithm to study the longitudinal changes in choline level among HIV patients

Inverse regression for longitudinal data

Sliced inverse regression (Duan and Li [Ann. Statist. 19 (1991) 505-530], Li [J. Amer. Statist. Assoc. 86 (1991) 316-342]) is an appealing dimension reduction method for regression models with multivariate covariates. It has been extended by Ferr\'{e} and Yao [Statistics 37 (2003) 475-488, Statist. Sinica 15 (2005) 665-683] and Hsing and Ren [Ann. Statist. 37 (2009) 726-755] to functional covariates where the whole trajectories of random functional covariates are completely observed. The focus of this paper is to develop sliced inverse regression for intermittently and sparsely measured longitudinal covariates. We develop asymptotic theory for the new procedure and show, under some regularity conditions, that the estimated directions attain the optimal rate of convergence. Simulation studies and data analysis are also provided to demonstrate the performance of our method.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/13-AOS1193 the Annals of Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org). With Correction

Functional linear regression analysis for longitudinal data

We propose nonparametric methods for functional linear regression which are designed for sparse longitudinal data, where both the predictor and response are functions of a covariate such as time. Predictor and response processes have smooth random trajectories, and the data consist of a small number of noisy repeated measurements made at irregular times for a sample of subjects. In longitudinal studies, the number of repeated measurements per subject is often small and may be modeled as a discrete random number and, accordingly, only a finite and asymptotically nonincreasing number of measurements are available for each subject or experimental unit. We propose a functional regression approach for this situation, using functional principal component analysis, where we estimate the functional principal component scores through conditional expectations. This allows the prediction of an unobserved response trajectory from sparse measurements of a predictor trajectory. The resulting technique is flexible and allows for different patterns regarding the timing of the measurements obtained for predictor and response trajectories. Asymptotic properties for a sample of $n$ subjects are investigated under mild conditions, as $n\to \infty$, and we obtain consistent estimation for the regression function. Besides convergence results for the components of functional linear regression, such as the regression parameter function, we construct asymptotic pointwise confidence bands for the predicted trajectories. A functional coefficient of determination as a measure of the variance explained by the functional regression model is introduced, extending the standard $R^2$ to the functional case. The proposed methods are illustrated with a simulation study, longitudinal primary biliary liver cirrhosis data and an analysis of the longitudinal relationship between blood pressure and body mass index.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/009053605000000660 in the Annals of Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Functional single index models for longitudinal data

A new single-index model that reflects the time-dynamic effects of the single index is proposed for longitudinal and functional response data, possibly measured with errors, for both longitudinal and time-invariant covariates. With appropriate initial estimates of the parametric index, the proposed estimator is shown to be $\sqrt{n}$-consistent and asymptotically normally distributed. We also address the nonparametric estimation of regression functions and provide estimates with optimal convergence rates. One advantage of the new approach is that the same bandwidth is used to estimate both the nonparametric mean function and the parameter in the index. The finite-sample performance for the proposed procedure is studied numerically.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/10-AOS845 the Annals of Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org