The performance of prognostic models depended on the choice of missing value imputation algorithm: a simulation study

The development of clinical prediction models is often impeded by the occurrence of missing values in the predictors. Various methods for imputing missing values before modeling have been proposed. Some of them are based on variants of multiple imputations by chained equations, while others are based on single imputation. These methods may include elements of flexible modeling or machine learning algorithms, and for some of them user-friendly software packages are available. The aim of this study was to investigate by simulation if some of these methods consistently outperform others in performance measures of clinical prediction models.