Using multiple imputations to accommodate time-outs in online interventions.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Accurately estimating the period of time that individuals are exposed to online intervention content is important for understanding program engagement. This can be calculated from time-stamped data reflecting navigation to and from individual webpages. Prolonged periods of inactivity are commonly handled with a time-out feature and assigned a prespecified exposure duration. Unfortunately, this practice can lead to biased results describing program exposure.

Objective

The aim of the study was to describe how multiple imputations can be used to better account for the time spent viewing webpages that result in a prolonged period of inactivity or a time-out.

Methods

To illustrate this method, we present data on time-outs collected from the Q(2) randomized smoki

SUBMITTER: Shortreed SM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3841344 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature