Summary Measure Analysis¶
Before we move on to linear mixed models, I want to breifly discuss a simpler analysis method. Summary measures analysis reduces the repeated measures on each individual (these are correlated) to a single summary measure for each subject that can be used to answer the question of interest. This reduces the dataset to a summary measure for each subject. These new measures are independent and so we can use the methods we already know such as the two sample t-test. For example, consider the following two questions concerning the BPRS dataset:
- Is the overall BPRS score different between the treatment groups?
- Is the rat of change in the BRPS score different between the treatment groups?
The first question asks of the treatments effect on the response differe while the second question asks if the one treatment causes a faster deacrease in the BPRS score. We can answer the first question using a summary measures analysis by taking the mean brps scores of the 8 weeks as the response for each subject and performing a two sample t-test. For the second question, we can use the setimate slope from a simple linear regression between brps and weeks for each subject and again perform a two sample t-test between the average slopes for each treatment group.
The summary measures analysis for the first question can be done as follows: