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Joint analysis of longitudinal data comprising repeated measures and times to events
Author(s) -
Xu Jane,
Zeger Scott L.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of the royal statistical society: series c (applied statistics)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.205
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1467-9876
pISSN - 0035-9254
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9876.00241
Subject(s) - covariate , latent variable , econometrics , statistics , clinical trial , markov chain monte carlo , psychology , nuisance parameter , variable (mathematics) , markov chain , computer science , mathematics , medicine , monte carlo method , estimator , mathematical analysis
In biomedical and public health research, both repeated measures of biomarkers Y as well as times T to key clinical events are often collected for a subject. The scientific question is how the distribution of the responses [ T , Y | X ] changes with covariates X . [ T | X ] may be the focus of the estimation where Y can be used as a surrogate for T . Alternatively, T may be the time to drop‐out in a study in which [ Y | X ] is the target for estimation. Also, the focus of a study might be on the effects of covariates X on both T and Y or on some underlying latent variable which is thought to be manifested in the observable outcomes. In this paper, we present a general model for the joint analysis of [ T , Y | X ] and apply the model to estimate [ T | X ] and other related functionals by using the relevant information in both T and Y . We adopt a latent variable formulation like that of Fawcett and Thomas and use it to estimate several quantities of clinical relevance to determine the efficacy of a treatment in a clinical trial setting. We use a Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm to estimate the model's parameters. We illustrate the methodology with an analysis of data from a clinical trial comparing risperidone with a placebo for the treatment of schizophrenia.