Analysis Of Failure Time Data Research Articles

Estimation of the additive hazards model based on case‐cohort interval‐censored data with dependent censoring

AbstractThe additive hazards model is one of the most commonly used models for regression analysis of failure time data, and many methods have been developed for its estimation. In this article, we consider the situation where one observes informatively interval‐censored data arising from case‐cohort studies where covariate information is collected only for a small subcohort of study subjects. By informative or dependent censoring, we mean that the failure time of interest and the censoring mechanism may be correlated. For estimation, we will develop a sieve inverse probability weighting estimation procedure with the use of Bernstein polynomials. The resulting estimators of regression parameters are shown to be consistent and asymptotically normal. An extensive simulation study is conducted and suggests that the proposed method works well in practical situations. An example is also provided.

Efficient estimation of Cox model with random change point.

In clinical studies, the risk of a disease may dramatically change when some biological indexes of the human body exceed some thresholds. Furthermore, the differences in individual characteristics of patients such as physical and psychological experience may lead to subject-specific thresholds or change points. Although a large literature has been established for regression analysis of failure time data with change points, most of the existing methods assume the same, fixed change point for all study subjects. In this paper, we consider the situation where there exists a subject-specific change point and two Cox type models are presented. The proposed models also offer a framework for subgroup analysis. For inference, a sieve maximum likelihood estimation procedure is proposed and the asymptotic properties of the resulting estimators are established. An extensive simulation study is conducted to assess the empirical performance of the proposed method and indicates that it works well in practical situations. Finally the proposed approach is applied to a set of breast cancer data.

Semiparametric probit regression model with misclassified current status data.

Current status data arise when each subject under study is examined only once at an observation time, and one only knows the failure status of the event of interest at the observation time rather than the exact failure time. Moreover, the obtained failure status is frequently subject to misclassification due to imperfect tests, yielding misclassified current status data. This article conducts regression analysis of such data with the semiparametric probit model, which serves as an important alternative to existing semiparametric models and has recently received considerable attention in failure time data analysis. We consider the nonparametric maximum likelihood estimation and develop an expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm by incorporating the generalized pool-adjacent-violators (PAV) algorithm to maximize the intractable likelihood function. The resulting estimators of regression parameters are shown to be consistent, asymptotically normal, and semiparametrically efficient. Furthermore, the numerical results in simulation studies indicate that the proposed method performs satisfactorily in finite samples and outperforms the naive method that ignores misclassification. We then apply the proposed method to a real dataset on chlamydia infection.

Estimation of accelerated hazards models based on case K informatively interval-censored failure time data

The accelerated hazards model is one of the most commonly used models for regression analysis of failure time data and this is especially the case when, for example, the hazard functions may have monotonicity property. Correspondingly a large literature has been established for its estimation or inference when right-censored data are observed. Although several methods have also been developed for its inference based on interval-censored data, they apply only to limited situations or rely on some assumptions such as independent censoring. In this paper, we consider the situation where one observes case K interval-censored data, the type of failure time data that occur most in, for example, medical research such as clinical trials or periodical follow-up studies. For inference, we propose a sieve borrow-strength method and in particular, it allows for informative censoring. The asymptotic properties of the proposed estimators are established. Simulation studies demonstrate that the proposed inference procedure performs well. The method is applied to a set of real data set arising from an AIDS clinical trial.

Estimation of linear transformation cure models with informatively interval-censored failure time data

Linear transformation models have been one type of models commonly used for regression analysis of failure time data partly due to their flexibility. More recently they have been generalised to the case where there may exist a cured subgroup or the censoring may be informative. In this paper, we consider a more complicated and general situation where both a cured subgroup and informative censoring, or more specifically informative interval censoring, exist. As pointed out in the literature, the analysis that fails to take into account either the cured subgroup or the informative censoring can yield biased estimation or misleading conclusions. For the problem, a three-component mixture cure model is presented and we develop a two-step estimation procedure with the use of B-splines to approximate unknown functions. The proposed approach is quite flexible and can be easily implemented. Also the proposed estimators of regression parameters are shown to be consistent and asymptotically normal. An extensive simulation study is conducted and suggests that the method works well for practical situations. Furthermore a real application is provided to illustrate the proposed methodology.

Inference on semi-parametric transformation model with a pairwise likelihood based on left-truncated and interval-censored data

Semi-parametric transformation models provide a general and flexible class of models for regression analysis of failure time data and many methods have been developed for their estimation. In particular, they include the proportional hazards and proportional odds models as special cases. In this paper, we discuss the situation where one observes left-truncated and interval-censored data, for which it does not seem to exist an established method. For the problem, in contrast to the commonly used conditional approach that may not be efficient, a pairwise pseudo-likelihood method is proposed to recover some missing information in the conditional method. The proposed estimators are proved to be consistent and asymptotically efficient and normal. A simulation study is conducted to assess the empirical performance of the method and suggests that it works well in practical situations. This method is illustrated by using a set of real data arising from an HIV/AIDS cohort study.

Discussion of signature‐based models of preventive maintenance

Discussion of signature‐based models of preventive maintenance

Variable selection for nonparametric additive Cox model with interval-censored data.

The standard Cox model is perhaps the most commonly used model for regression analysis of failure time data but it has some limitations such as the assumption on linear covariate effects. To relax this, the nonparametric additive Cox model, which allows for nonlinear covariate effects, is often employed, and this paper will discuss variable selection and structure estimation for this general model. For the problem, we propose a penalized sieve maximum likelihood approach with the use of Bernstein polynomials approximation and group penalization. To implement the proposed method, an efficient group coordinate descent algorithm is developed and can be easily carried out for both low- and high-dimensional scenarios. Furthermore, a simulation study is performed to assess the performance of the presented approach and suggests that it works well in practice. The proposed method is applied to an Alzheimer's disease study for identifying important and relevant genetic factors.

Regression analysis of additive hazards model with sparse longitudinal covariates.

Additive hazards model is often used to complement the proportional hazards model in the analysis of failure time data. Statistical inference of additive hazards model with time-dependent longitudinal covariates requires the availability of the whole trajectory of the longitudinal process, which is not realistic in practice. The commonly used last value carried forward approach for intermittently observed longitudinal covariates can induce biased parameter estimation. The more principled joint modeling of the longitudinal process and failure time data imposes strong modeling assumptions, which is difficult to verify. In this paper, we propose methods that weigh the distance between the observational time of longitudinal covariates and the failure time, resulting in unbiased regression coefficient estimation. We establish the consistency and asymptotic normality of the proposed estimators. Simulation studies provide numerical support for the theoretical findings. Data from an Alzheimer's study illustrate the practical utility of the methodology.

A unified approach to variable selection for Cox's proportional hazards model with interval-censored failure time data.

Cox's proportional hazards model is the most commonly used model for regression analysis of failure time data and some methods have been developed for its variable selection under different situations. In this paper, we consider a general type of failure time data, case K interval-censored data, that include all of other types discussed as special cases, and propose a unified penalized variable selection procedure. In addition to its generality, another significant feature of the proposed approach is that unlike all of the existing variable selection methods for failure time data, the proposed approach allows dependent censoring, which can occur quite often and could lead to biased or misleading conclusions if not taken into account. For the implementation, a coordinate descent algorithm is developed and the oracle property of the proposed method is established. The numerical studies indicate that the proposed approach works well for practical situations and it is applied to a set of real data arising from Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative study that motivated this study.

New methods for the additive hazards model with the informatively interval-censored failure time data.

The additive hazards model is one of the most commonly used models for regression analysis of failure time data and many inference procedures have been developed for it under various situations. In particular, Wang etal. (2018a, Computational Statistics and Data Analysis, 125, 1-9) discussed the situation where one observes informatively interval-censored data and proposed a likelihood estimation approach. However , it involves estimation of the unknown baseline cumulative hazard function and thus may be time-consuming . Corresponding to this, we propose two new procedures, an estimating equation-based one and an empirical likelihood-based one, and both do not need estimation of the cumulative hazard function and can be easily implemented. The asymptotic properties of the proposed methods are established and an extensive simulation study suggests that they work well in practical situations. An application is alsoprovided.

Semiparametric regression analysis of partly interval-censored failure time data with application to an AIDS clinical trial.

Failure time data subject to various types of censoring commonly arise in epidemiological and biomedical studies. Motivated by an AIDS clinical trial, we consider regression analysis of failure time data that include exact and left-, interval-, and/or right-censored observations, which are often referred to as partly interval-censored failure time data. We study the effects of potentially time-dependent covariates on partly interval-censored failure time via a class of semiparametric transformation models that includes the widely used proportional hazards model and the proportional odds model as special cases. We propose an EM algorithm for the nonparametric maximum likelihood estimation and show that it unifies some existing approaches developed for traditional right-censored data or purely interval-censored data. In particular, the proposed method reduces to the partial likelihood approach in the case of right-censored data under the proportional hazards model. We establish that the resulting estimator is consistent and asymptotically normal. In addition, we investigate the proposed method via simulation studies and apply it to the motivating AIDS clinical trial.

Estimation of the additive hazards model with linear inequality restrictions based on current status data

The additive hazards model is one of the commonly used models for failure time data analysis and many authors have discussed its estimation under various situations. In this paper, we consider the same problem but under some inequality constraints when one faces current status data, for which it does not seem to exist an established estimation procedure due to the difficulties involved. In particular, the restricted maximum likelihood estimation approach is derived and the asymptotic properties of the resulting estimator of regression parameters are established with the use of some optimization methods. Simulation studies are conducted to assess the finite-sample performance of the proposed method and suggest that it works well for practical situations. A real data application is provided to demonstrate the utility of the proposed approach.

Estimation of the additive hazards model with interval‐censored data and missing covariates

AbstractThe additive hazards model is one of the most commonly used regression models in the analysis of failure time data and many methods have been developed for its inference in various situations. However, no established estimation procedure exists when there are covariates with missing values and the observed responses are interval‐censored; both types of complications arise in various settings including demographic, epidemiological, financial, medical and sociological studies. To address this deficiency, we propose several inverse probability weight‐based and reweighting‐based estimation procedures for the situation where covariate values are missing at random. The resulting estimators of regression model parameters are shown to be consistent and asymptotically normal. The numerical results that we report from a simulation study suggest that the proposed methods work well in practical situations. An application to a childhood cancer survival study is provided. The Canadian Journal of Statistics 48: 499–517; 2020 © 2020 Statistical Society of Canada

Estimation of the additive hazards model with case [formula omitted] interval-censored failure time data in the presence of informative censoring

The additive hazards model is one of the most commonly used model in regression analysis of failure time data and many estimation procedures have been developed for its inference under various situations (Kalbfleisch and Prentice (2002); Lin and Ying (1994); Sun (2006)). In this paper, we consider a situation, case K interval-censored data with informative interval censoring, that often occurs in practice such as medical follow-up studies but has not been discussed much in the literature due to the difficulties involved. For the problem, a joint model is proposed to describe the correlation between the failure time of interest and the underlying censoring or observation process and a sieve maximum likelihood approach is developed. In particular, an EM algorithm is presented for the implementation of the proposed estimation procedure and the asymptotic properties of the resulting estimators are established. A simulation study is conducted to assess the finite sample performance of the proposed method and suggests that it works well for practical situations. Also the method is applied to an AIDS study that motivated this study.

Penalized estimation of semiparametric transformation models with interval-censored data and application to Alzheimer's disease.

Variable selection or feature extraction is fundamental to identify important risk factors from a large number of covariates and has applications in many fields. In particular, its applications in failure time data analysis have been recognized and many methods have been proposed for right-censored data. However, developing relevant methods for variable selection becomes more challenging when one confronts interval censoring that often occurs in practice. In this article, motivated by an Alzheimer's disease study, we develop a variable selection method for interval-censored data with a general class of semiparametric transformation models. Specifically, a novel penalized expectation-maximization algorithm is developed to maximize the complex penalized likelihood function, which is shown to perform well in the finite-sample situation through a simulation study. The proposed methodology is then applied to the interval-censored data arising from the Alzheimer's disease study mentioned above.

Semiparametric probit model for informative current status data.

Semiparametric probit models have recently attracted some attention for regression analysis of failure time data partly due to the popularity of the normal distribution and its special features. In this paper, we discuss the fitting of such models to informative current status data, which often occur in many areas such as medical studies and whose analysis has also recently attracted a lot of attention. For inference, a sieve maximum likelihood approach is developed and the methodology is further generalized to a class of generalized semiparametric probit models. A simulation study is conducted to assess the finite sample properties of the presented approach and indicates that it works well in practical situations. An application that motivated this study is provided.

Regression analysis of interval-censored failure time data with cured subgroup and mismeasured covariates

Failure time data occur in many areas and also in various forms and in particular, many authors have discussed regression analysis of failure time data in the presence of interval censoring, a cured subgroup or mismeasured covariates. However, it does not seem to exist an established procedure that can deal with all three issues together. Corresponding to this, we propose a sieve maximum likelihood estimation procedure that takes into account all three issues with the use of the SIMEX algorithm. The asymptotic properties of the proposed estimators are established, and an extensive simulation study is also conducted and suggests that the proposed method works well for practical situations.

Semiparametric analysis of the additive hazards model with informatively interval-censored failure time data

Regression analysis of failure time data has been discussed by many authors and for this, one of the commonly used models is the additive hazards model, for which some inference procedures have been developed for various types of censored data. In this paper, a much general type of censored data, case K informatively interval-censored data, is considered for which there does not seem to exist an established inference procedure. For the problem, a joint modeling approach that involves a two-step estimation procedure and the sieve maximum likelihood estimation is presented. The proposed estimators of regression parameters are shown to be consistent and asymptotically normal, and a simulation study conducted suggests that the proposed procedure works well for practical situations. In addition, an application is provided.

Nonparametric estimation of interval-censored failure time data in the presence of informative censoring

Nonparametric estimation of a survival function is one of the most commonly asked questions in the analysis of failure time data and for this, a number of procedures have been developed under various types of censoring structures (Kalbfleisch and Prentice, 2002). In particular, several algorithms are available for interval-censored failure time data with independent censoring mechanism (Sun, 2006; Turnbull, 1976). In this paper, we consider the interval-censored data where the censoring mechanism may be related to the failure time of interest, for which there does not seem to exist a nonparametric estimation procedure. It is well-known that with informative censoring, the estimation is possible only under some assumptions. To attack the problem, we take a copula model approach to model the relationship between the failure time of interest and censoring variables and present a simple nonparametric estimation procedure. The method allows one to conduct a sensitivity analysis among others.