Multistate analysis of multitype recurrent event and failure time data with event feedbacks in biomarkers

Abstract

AbstractIn this paper we propose a class of multistate models for the analysis of multitype recurrent event and failure time data when there are past event feedbacks in longitudinal biomarkers. It can well incorporate various effects, including time‐dependent and time‐independent effects, of different event paths or the number of occurrences of events of different types. Asymptotic unbiased estimating equations based on polynomial splines approximation are developed. The consistency and asymptotic normality of the proposed estimators are provided. Simulation studies show that the naive estimators which either ignore the past event feedback or the measurement errors are biased. Our method has a better coverage probability of the time‐varying/constant coefficients, compared to the naive methods. An application to the dataset from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, which is also the motivating example to develop the method, is presented.