Weighted quantile regression for longitudinal data

Abstract

Quantile regression is a powerful statistical methodology that complements the classical linear regression by examining how covariates influence the location, scale, and shape of the entire response distribution and offering a global view of the statistical landscape. In this paper we propose a new quantile regression model for longitudinal data. The proposed approach incorporates the correlation structure between repeated measures to enhance the efficiency of the inference. In order to use the Newton–Raphson iteration method to obtain convergent estimates, the estimating functions are redefined as smoothed functions which are differentiable with respect to regression parameters. Our proposed method for quantile regression provides consistent estimates with asymptotically normal distributions. Simulation studies are carried out to evaluate the performance of the proposed method. As an illustration, the proposed method was applied to a data on the time evolution of CD4 cell numbers in HIV (human immune-deficiency virus) seroconverters and a real-life data that contains self-reported labor pain for women in two groups.