Evidence map›Paper›PMID 37337922›Full record

ArticleJournal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA2023

Missing data matter: an empirical evaluation of the impacts of missing EHR data in comparative effectiveness research.

Yizhao Zhou, Jiasheng Shi, Ronen Stein, Xiaokang Liu, Robert N Baldassano, Christopher B Forrest, Yong Chen, Jing Huang

Open access · greenAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
15citing papers in PubMed
15.4field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

15 citing papers in PubMed, 27 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
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  10. Fast and interpretable mortality risk scores for critical care patients.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2025
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Yizhao ZhouDepartment of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Jiasheng ShiDepartment of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Ronen SteinDepartment of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Xiaokang LiuDepartment of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.ORCID 0000-0001-6920-5598
Robert N BaldassanoDepartment of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Christopher B ForrestDepartment of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Yong ChenDepartment of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.ORCID 0000-0003-0835-0788
Jing HuangDepartment of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia · USUniversity of Pennsylvania · US

Funding

Characterizing Disease Trajectory for Improving Treatment in Pediatric Crohn's DiseaseR01HD099348 · NICHD · CHILDREN'S HOSP OF PHILADELPHIA · PI HUANG, JING · 2019 to 2023
$3.2M
NICHD NIH HHS R01 HD099348
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectivesThe impacts of missing data in comparative effectiveness research (CER) using electronic health records (EHRs) may vary depending on the type and pattern of missing data. In this study, we aimed to quantify these impacts and compare the performance of different imputation methods. MATERIALS AND

methodsWe conducted an empirical (simulation) study to quantify the bias and power loss in estimating treatment effects in CER using EHR data. We considered various missing scenarios and used the propensity scores to control for confounding. We compared the performance of the multiple imputation and spline smoothing methods to handle missing data.

resultsWhen missing data depended on the stochastic progression of disease and medical practice patterns, the spline smoothing method produced results that were close to those obtained when there were no missing data. Compared to multiple imputation, the spline smoothing generally performed similarly or better, with smaller estimation bias and less power loss. The multiple imputation can still reduce study bias and power loss in some restrictive scenarios, eg, when missing data did not depend on the stochastic process of disease progression. DISCUSSION AND

conclusionMissing data in EHRs could lead to biased estimates of treatment effects and false negative findings in CER even after missing data were imputed. It is important to leverage the temporal information of disease trajectory to impute missing values when using EHRs as a data resource for CER and to consider the missing rate and the effect size when choosing an imputation method.

Indexed as

Comparative Effectiveness ResearchResearch DesignBiasComputer SimulationData Interpretation, StatisticalPropensity Scoreelectronic health recordsempirical studymissing datamultiple imputation

Identifiers

PMID37337922
PMCPMC10280351
OpenAlexW4366085127

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.