Missing data in aging studies, especially in the assessment of gait speed (the time it takes individuals to cover a set distance), presents a significant challenge. The elderly are more prone to health and functional issues, which often interfere with data collection efforts. Given that gait speed is a key indicator of functional status and overall health in older individuals, ensuring its availability and accurate measurement is essential for the integrity of aging research.

In a new study, researchers Robert Thiesmeier, Ahmad Abbadi, Debora Rizzuto, Amaia Calderón-Larrañaga, Scott M. Hofer, and Nicola Orsini from Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm University, Stockholm Gerontology Research Center, and Oregon Health and Science University address the systematic challenge of missing gait speed data in aging research and explore the application of multiple imputation (MI), a statistical technique that has emerged as a constructive approach to handle such gaps in data. The team critically examined the implementation strategies, methodologies, and the impact that these missing variables could have on the outcomes of aging studies, thereby offering a framework to manage and interpret incomplete datasets in aging research. On February 14, 2024, their research paper was published in Aging’s Volume 16, Issue 4, entitled, “Multiple imputation of systematically missing data on gait speed in the Swedish National Study on Aging and Care.”

“[...] this study aims to investigate and assess the performance of different MI strategies specifically targeting the systematically missing discrete variable of gait speed in the SNAC [Swedish National Study on Aging and Care] IPDMA [individual participant data meta-analyses] with only four large cohort studies.”

Full blog - https://aging-us.org/2024/03/overcoming-missing-data-in-the-swedish-national-study-on-aging/

Paper DOI - https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.205552

Corresponding authors - Robert Thiesmeier - [email protected]

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Keywords - aging, simulation, systematically missing values, individual participant data, meta-analysis, gait speed

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Launched in 2009, Aging-US publishes papers of general interest and biological significance in all fields of aging research and age-related diseases, including cancer—and now, with a special focus on COVID-19 vulnerability as an age-dependent syndrome. Topics in Aging-US go beyond traditional gerontology, including, but not limited to, cellular and molecular biology, human age-related diseases, pathology in model organisms, signal transduction pathways (e.g., p53, sirtuins, and PI-3K/AKT/mTOR, among others), and approaches to modulating these signaling pathways.

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