Including the outcome in your imputation model -- why isn't this 'double dipping'?

Conference: Women in Statistics and Data Science 2024
10/17/2024: 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM EDT
Panel 

Description

An often repeated question is whether including the outcome in an imputation model is 'double dipping' or 'peeking' at the outcome in a way that can negatively impact the Type 1 error in studies. This talk will dive into this myth and help dispel these concerns. We mathematically demonstrate that including the outcome variable in imputation models when using stochastic methods is required to avoid biased results. A discussion of these results along with practical advice will follow.

Keywords

Missing data

Multiple imputation

Causal inference 

Speaker

Lucy D'Agostino McGowan, Wake Forest University