Analysis of a long-term study of neurotic disorder, with insights into the process of non-response

摘要

The paper studies the non-response process in a long-term study of neurotic disorder by comparing the analysis based on the responses that were collected by the established practice of interviewing the subjects, at dates arranged in advance (appointments), with the analysis of the nearly complete set of responses that were collected by an extensive effort that involved attempts to interview without seeking a prior agreement. The method of multiple imputation is applied, and its properties are explored in a setting that is not perfectly suited for its application: a relatively small sample size, ordinal score outcomes and the likelihood that the outcomes are missing not at random.