Li Lei, Rysavy Matthew A, Das Abhik
Biostatistics and Epidemiology Division, RTI International, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA.
Department of Pediatrics, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA.
Stat Med. 2018 Aug 30;37(19):2902-2906. doi: 10.1002/sim.7683. Epub 2018 Jul 16.
Multilevel random-effects models have become a popular method in the analysis of clustered data. Such analyses enable researchers to quantify within-cluster and between-cluster variations of an outcome and to separate individual-level and cluster-level effects of covariates by taking advantage of the hierarchical structure of clustered data. The tutorial article by Austin and Merlo was a timely effort intended to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date review of the tools and approaches. However, we feel that some important ideas and concepts described in this article need clarification.
多层随机效应模型已成为分析聚类数据的一种常用方法。此类分析使研究人员能够通过利用聚类数据的层次结构来量化结果在聚类内和聚类间的变异,并分离协变量在个体层面和聚类层面的效应。奥斯汀和梅尔洛撰写的这篇教程文章是一次及时的努力,旨在对相关工具和方法进行全面且最新的综述。然而,我们认为本文中描述的一些重要观点和概念需要进一步阐明。