Data integration methods for micro-randomized trials
Abstract
Existing statistical methods for the analysis of micro-randomized trials (MRTs) are designed to estimate causal excursion effects using data from a single MRT. In practice, however, researchers can often find previous MRTs that employ similar interventions. In this paper, we develop data integration methods that capitalize on this additional information, leading to statistical efficiency gains. To further increase efficiency, we demonstrate how to combine these approaches according to a generalization of multivariate precision weighting that allows for correlation between estimates, and we show that the resulting meta-estimator possesses an asymptotic optimality property. We illustrate our methods in simulation and in a case study involving two MRTs in the area of smoking cessation.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2403.13934,
title = {Data integration methods for micro-randomized trials},
author = {Easton Huch and Inbal Nahum-Shani and Lindsey Potter and Cho Lam and David W. Wetter and Walter Dempsey},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2403.13934},
year = {2025}
}