USE OF THE WEI-LIN-WEISSFELD METHOD FOR THE ANALYSIS OF A RECURRING AND A TERMINATING EVENT

• Published in: Statistics in medicine Vol. 16; no. 8; pp. 925 - 940
• Main Authors: LI, QIAN H., LAGAKOS, STEPHEN W.
• Format: Journal Article Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Chichester, UK John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 30.04.1997; Wiley
• Subjects: Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome - drug therapy; Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome - mortality; AIDS/HIV; Anti-HIV Agents - therapeutic use; Biological and medical sciences; Computerized, statistical medical data processing and models in biomedicine; Didanosine - therapeutic use; Drug Therapy, Combination; HIV-1; Humans; Medical sciences; Medical statistics; Models, Statistical; Proportional Hazards Models; Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic - methods; Recurrence; Time Factors; Zidovudine - therapeutic use; Disease development; Human; Immunopathology; Recurrence; Data analysis; Parameter estimation; Pathogenesis; AIDS; Multivariate analysis; Immune deficiency; Infection; Statistical method; Viral disease; Clinical trial; Death; Time analysis; Failure
• ISSN: 0277-6715; 1097-0258
• DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1097-0258(19970430)16:8<925::AID-SIM545>3.0.CO;2-2

We consider application of the Wei–Lin–Weissfeld (WLW) method for multiple failure time data when analysing a disease process consisting of a recurring outcome, such as clinical progression, and a terminating outcome, such as death. In order to adapt WLW for this situation, ‘events’ must be specified that define multiple failure times and whether these are censored. Various choices of events are possible, and each corresponds to inferences about a different aspect of the underlying disease process. Definitions which regard the terminating outcome as a censor of the recurring outcome focus on specific cause‐specific hazard functions, while event definitions which make no distinction between a recurring and terminating outcome focus on hazard functions of the induced failure times. Some event definitions require strong statistical assumptions to yield valid inferences and are not recommended. The application of WLW for recurring/terminating processes is illustrated with the results of two recently conducted clinical trials in persons with HIV. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Stat. Med., Vol. 16, 925–940 (1997).