RE: [NMusers] Priors and covariate model building

2012-06-23 Thread Mats Karlsson
Dear Palang,

If you plan to build a covariate model for a parameter, it must mean that
you have reasonable information about this parameter in a rather large
sample of patients. It doesn't sound that you like a prior for this
parameter - there should be enough info in the data you have available.

Best regards,
Mats

Mats Karlsson, PhD
Professor of Pharmacometrics

FIRST WORLD CONFERENCE ON PHARMACOMETRICS, 5-7 September 2012, Seoul
(www.go-wcop.org)

Dept of Pharmaceutical Biosciences
Faculty of Pharmacy
Uppsala University
Box 591
75124 Uppsala

Phone: +46 18 4714105
Fax + 46 18 4714003


-Original Message-
From: owner-nmus...@globomaxnm.com [mailto:owner-nmus...@globomaxnm.com] On
Behalf Of Palang Chotsiri
Sent: 22 June 2012 19:13
To: nmusers@globomaxnm.com
Subject: [NMusers] Priors and covariate model building

Dear NMusers,

I am trying to model a sparse dataset by using the benefit of previously
published parameter estimates (based on rich data sampling). When applying
the $PRIOR subroutine, the THETAs and ETAs estimates of the new dataset are
reasonable and the model fit satisfactory.

My question now relates to covariate modeling when a prior is applied. No
significant covariate relationships are included in my prior model (apart
from allometric scaling). The prior was derived based on rich PK sampling
but a fairly small sample size. The later sparse sampling study is conducted
in a larger group compare to the previous study. This might render us a
greater power to detect covariate relationships based on this dataset.

Or problem lies in that we do not know how we can correctly conduct a
covariate model search with this model? The parameter estimates of the prior
are conditioned on the covariate distribution in the dataset on which it was
derived and are not necessarily relevant when a covariate relationship is
included.

Perhaps there is no ideal solution but we would be grateful for any ideas on
how to best conduct covariate model building when a prior is used.

Best regards,
Palang Chotsiri & Martin Bergstrand

Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, Bangkok 10400, THAILAND


Ps. Ideal is of course to model both datasets together but that might not
always be possible for practical reasons.



Re: [NMusers] Priors and covariate model building

2012-06-23 Thread Ribbing, Jakob
Dear Palang and Martin,

For the published analysis; do you have any information on the covariates that 
you would like to investigate? (mean and sd or range). Another factor weighting 
in the approach you take may be what functional form(s) you consider for 
continuous covariates (e.g. Linear vs. power).

If you have the means for the previous analysis then one simple solution may be 
to centre any investigated covariates around these (prior) covariate means. If 
you find any highly important covariates, you may additionally consider a lower 
omega on that parameter since the prior did not take this covariate into 
account. (with a linear cov model and in the simplest case: based  on covariate 
sd in the previous study and the estimated covariate coefficient - this 
correction could be implemented on the fly, but is only important if you study 
pop has any very important cov effects beyond the allometry correction).

Best regards

Jakob

Skickat från min iPhone

22 jun 2012 kl. 19:39 skrev "Palang Chotsiri" :

> Dear NMusers,
> 
> I am trying to model a sparse dataset by using the benefit of previously 
> published parameter estimates (based on rich data sampling). When applying 
> the $PRIOR subroutine, the THETAs and ETAs estimates of the new dataset are 
> reasonable and the model fit satisfactory.
> 
> My question now relates to covariate modeling when a prior is applied. No 
> significant covariate relationships are included in my prior model (apart 
> from allometric scaling). The prior was derived based on rich PK sampling but 
> a fairly small sample size. The later sparse sampling study is conducted in a 
> larger group compare to the previous study. This might render us a greater 
> power to detect covariate relationships based on this dataset.
> 
> Or problem lies in that we do not know how we can correctly conduct a 
> covariate model search with this model? The parameter estimates of the prior 
> are conditioned on the covariate distribution in the dataset on which it was 
> derived and are not necessarily relevant when a covariate relationship is 
> included.
> 
> Perhaps there is no ideal solution but we would be grateful for any ideas on 
> how to best conduct covariate model building when a prior is used.
> 
> Best regards,
> Palang Chotsiri & Martin Bergstrand
> 
> Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit,
> Bangkok 10400, THAILAND
> 
> 
> Ps. Ideal is of course to model both datasets together but that might not 
> always be possible for practical reasons.