Missing Data Imputation Through the Use of the Random Forest Algorithm

This paper presents a comparison of different paradigms used for missing data imputation. The data set used is HIV seroprevalence data front an antenatal clinic study survey performed in 2001. Data imputation is performed through five methods: Random Forests; auto-associative neural networks with genetic algorithms; auto-associative neuro-fuzzy configurations; and two random forest and neural network based hybrids. Results indicate that Random Forests are superior in imputing missing data for the given data set in terms of accuracy and in terms of computation time, with accuracy increases of up to 32 % on average for certain variables when compared with auto-associative networks. While the concept of hybrid systems has promise, the presented systems appear to be hindered by their auto-associative neural network components.