Many methods have been proposed to solve the age-period-cohort (APC) linear identification problem, but most are not theoretically informed and may lead to biased estimators of APC effects. One exception is the mechanism-based approach recently proposed and based on Pearl's front-door criterion; this approach ensures consistent APC effect estimators in the presence of a complete set of intermed...

For missing data and causal inference problems, Rubin and van der Laan (2008) proposed estimators to achieve so-called improved local efficiency. We show that their estimators agree with existing estimators in the case of linear models, point out that one particular version of their estimators is also doubly robust, and suggest an extension for where the propensity score is estimated.

Residuals are frequently used to evaluate the validity of the assumptions of statistical models and may also be employed as tools for model selection. For standard (normal) linear models, for example, residuals are used to verify homoscedasticity, linearity of effects, presence of outliers, normality and independence of the errors. Similar uses may be envisaged for three types of residuals that...

In predicting a future lifetime based on a sample of past lifetimes, the Box-Cox transformation method provides a simple and unified procedure that is shown in this article to meet or often outperform the corresponding frequentist solution in terms of coverage probability and average length of prediction intervals. Kullback-Leibler information and second-order asymptotic expansion are used to j...

When using 'intent-to-treat' approaches to compare outcomes between groups in clinical trials, analysts face a decision regarding how to account for missing observations. Most model-based approaches can be summarized as a process whereby the analyst makes assumptions about the distribution of the missing data in an attempt to obtain unbiased estimates that are based on functions of the observed...

A methodology for evaluating and understanding how healthcare agencies are distributed within a city is provided. The study undertaken analysed the disparity in the spatial distribution of clinics within the metropolitan city of Daejeon, South Korea. Address and specialty of clinics in use were collected from five public health centres in 2010. Buffer analysis, hot-spot analysis, and generalize...