Asymptotic Theory for Relative-Risk Models with Missing Time-Dependent Covariates

Abstract

Relative-risk models are often used to characterize the relationship between survival time and time-dependent covariates. When the covariates are observed, the estimation and asymptotic theory for parameters of interest are available; challenges remain when missingness occurs. A popular approach at hand is to jointly model survival data and longitudinal data. This seems efficient, in making use of more information, but the rigorous theoretical studies have long been ignored. For both additive risk models and relative-risk models, we consider the missing data nonignorable. Under general regularity conditions, we prove asymptotic normality for the nonparametric maximum likelihood estimators.