Analysis of longitudinal data with semiparametric varying-coefficient mean–covariance models

Abstract

The efficient estimation of regression coefficients in the longitudinal data analysis requires a correct specification of the covariance structure. Existing approaches usually focus on modeling the mean with specification of certain covariance structures, which may lead to inefficient or biased estimators of parameters in the mean if misspecification occurs. In this article, we propose a novel data-driven approach based on semiparametric varying-coefficient models to model the mean and the covariance simultaneously, motivated by the modified Cholesky decomposition. An iterative estimation method is proposed, consisting of an orthogonality-based technique for parameters, an adaptive jump-preserving estimation method for varying coefficients, a modification of local linear smoothing technique for the autoregressive coefficient function, and a kernel smoothing technique for the variance function. Theoretical properties of the resulting estimators including uniform consistency and asymptotic normality are explicitly studied under certain mild conditions. Simulation studies are carried out to evaluate the efficacy of the proposed methods, and an analysis of a real data example is provided for illustration.