Statistical Modelling 19 (2) (2019), 140–156

Frailty modelling for multitype recurrent events in clinical trials

Paul M Brown
Department of Medicine,
University of Alberta,
Edmonton,
Canada.
e-mail: paul.brown@ualberta.ca

and

Canadian VIGOUR Centre,
Edmonton,
Canada.


Justin A Ezekowitz
Canadian VIGOUR Centre,
Edmonton,
Canada.


Abstract:

Recurrent event outcomes are ubiquitous among clinical trial data which encourages a conventional approach to analysis. Yet a common feature of these data has received less attention, that is, survival times often comprise multiple types of events that may imply a disparity in cost and disease severity. Typically, we neglect this feature of the data by combining event-types or analyzing each type separately, thus ignoring any interdependence among them. This practice may reflect a dearth of readily available methods and software that more appropriately acknowledge the true data structure. We provide a review of the literature on multitype recurrent events and frailty modelling which reflects a renewed interest in the topic over the past decade and the emergence of software for estimation. Thus, a review of available methods seems timely, if not overdue.

Keywords:

Frailty; Mixed modelling; multivariate; random effects; recurrent events;

Downloads:

Example data and code in zipped archive.
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