A monte carlo comparison of tests of parallelism of the ponses over time of two populations vith non-uniform observation times

Repeated measures data collected at random observation times are quite common in clinical studies and are often difficult to analyze. A Monte Carlo comparison of four analysis procedures with respect to significance level and power is presented. The basic procedures compared are successive difference analyses and three procedures using the data as summarized in the estimated quadratic polynomial regression coefficients for each subject. These three procedures are (1) Hotelling's T-square, (2) Multivariate Multisample Rank Sum Test (MMRST) and (3) Multivariate Multisample Median Test (MMMT).

For the variety of dispersion structures, sample sizes and treatement groups simulated the MMRST and successive difference analysis were the most satisfactory.