Multiple imputation in multilevel models. A revision of the current software and usage examples for researchers

ABSTRACT

Although modern lines for dealing with missing data are well established from the 1970s, today there is a challenge when researchers encounter this problem in multilevel models. First, there is a variety of existing software to handle missing data based on multiple imputation (MI), currently pointed out by experts as the most promising strategy. Second, the two principal paradigms of MI are joint modelling (JM) and fully conditional specification (FCS), one more complication because they are not equally useful depending on the combination of multilevel model and the estimated parameters affected by missing data. Technical literature do not contribute to ease the number of decisions that researcher has to do. Given these inconveniences, the present paper has three objectives. (1) To present a thorough revision of the most recently developed software and functions about multiple imputation in multilevel models. (2) We derive a set of suggestions, recommendations, and guides for helping researchers to handle missing data. We list a number of key questions to consider when analyzing multilevel models. (3) Finally, based on the previous relevant questions, we present two detailed examples using the recommended R packages to be easy for the researcher applying multiple imputation in multilevel models

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