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Independence conditions and the analysis of life history studies with intermittent observation

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cook-lawless-intobs-2021.pdf (642.33 KB)

Date

2021-07

Authors

Cook, Richard
Lawless, Jerald

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Abstract

Multistate models provide a powerful framework for the analysis of life history processes when the goal is to characterize transition intensities, transition probabilities, state occupancy probabilities, and covariate effects thereon. Data on such processes are often only available at random visit times occurring over a finite period.We formulate a joint multistate model for the life history process, the recurrent visit process, and a random loss to follow-up time at which the visit process terminates. This joint model is helpful when discussing the independence conditions necessary to justify the use of standard likelihoods involving the life history model alone and provides a basis for analyses that accommodate dependence. We consider settings with disease-driven visits and routinely scheduled visits and develop likelihoods that accommodate partial information on the types of visits. Simulation studies suggest that suitably constructed joint models can yield consistent estimates of parameters of interest even under dependent visit processes, providing the models are correctly specified; identifiability and estimability issues are also discussed. An application is given to a cohort of individuals attending a rheumatology clinic where interest lies in progression of joint damage.

Description

This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Biostatistics following peer review. The version records “Cook RJ and Lawless JF (2021), Independence conditions and the analysis of life history studies with intermittent observation, Biostatistics, 22 (3): 455-481”. DOI: 10.1093/biostatistics/kxz047 is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1093/biostatistics/kxz047.

Keywords

Joint model, loss to follow-up, Markov process, multistate model, visit process

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Citation

URI

https://doi.org/10.1093/biostatistics/kxz047
 http://hdl.handle.net/10012/18489

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Waterloo Research
Statistics and Actuarial Science