Bivariate pseudo-observations for recurrent event analysis with terminal events

Julie K. Furberg*, Per K. Andersen, Sofie Korn, Morten Overgaard, Henrik Ravn

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The analysis of recurrent events in the presence of terminal events requires special attention. Several approaches have been suggested for such analyses either using intensity models or marginal models. When analysing treatment effects on recurrent events in controlled trials, special attention should be paid to competing deaths and their impact on interpretation. This paper proposes a method that formulates a marginal model for recurrent events and terminal events simultaneously. Estimation is based on pseudo-observations for both the expected number of events and survival probabilities. Various relevant hypothesis tests in the framework are explored. Theoretical derivations and simulation studies are conducted to investigate the behaviour of the method. The method is applied to two real data examples. The bivariate marginal pseudo-observation model carries the strength of a two-dimensional modelling procedure and performs well in comparison with available models. Finally, an extension to a three-dimensional model, which decomposes the terminal event per death cause, is proposed and exemplified.

Original languageEnglish
JournalLifetime Data Analysis
Volume29
Pages (from-to)256-287
Number of pages12
ISSN1380-7870
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Keywords

  • Multi-state model
  • Pseudo-observations
  • Recurrent events
  • Simultaneous model
  • Terminal events

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