Dr. Waldman,
there seems to be no word from professional statisticians yet, so here's an
addenum.
Namely, I have overlooked two important aspects of the study; which,
hovever, doesn't invalidate the basic idea of pooling individual data over
appropriate time-periods.
The first aspect are the three groups of patients. - I'm not sure whether
they were formed on the basis of the (quote) design variables (in which case
there is one factor instead of the three nonrepeated ones), or they define
another factor (a rondom one, I guess, as opposed to the three fixed ones),
but the pooling approach is independent on this fact.
The same goes for the second aspect, i.e., that there were several measures
taken, not just one. Theoretically, MANOVA might thus be feasible instead of
several ANOVAs. But with such a complex model (say, one random plus three
fixed factors plus one repeated-measures factor) properly checking all the
various assumptions and interpreting all the results is rather ... Not to
mention that the analysis must be properly set up in the first place
(contrasts issues ...), as well as sample size issues ... At least, fully
understanding such an analysis is probably beyond the horizon of the
majority of the "consumers" in social/health sciences, to which you will
presumably have to present the findings. So if the outcome variables are not
too many and/or they are not too correlated, I believe they can be analysed
"one by one".
Awaiting judgement from the sci.stat.* community and wishing you all the
best with the research,
Gaj Vidmar
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