A Random-Effects Pattern-Mixture Model with Application to Comorbidity

This study aims to better understand the contribution of potential non-ignorable nonresponse associated with attrition and wave-nonresponse in race/ethnicity disparities in health trajectories. The empirical work of this study is based on the 1992-2010 Health and Retirement Study (HRS). Both growth curve models (direct likelihood maximization and pattern mixture) have very similar results, but the standard errors tended to be slightly underestimated in the former. Results from the growth curve models suggest that with age, racial/ethnic disparities in health decrease for low educated individuals, persist for those with at least a high school education and for Hispanic elderly with a highs school or GED education, and increase among the lower educated. The study concludes that any possible non-ignorable differences between models are not large enough to affect inferences drawn from the data analysis.

Growth Curve Models/Pattern-mixture Modeling/Health Trajectories/Health Trajectories/Elderly/race and ethnicity/education

999999