A nonparametric method for assessment of interactions in a median regression model for analyzing right censored data

Min Jae Lee, Mohammad H. Rahbar, Hooshang Talebi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

We propose a nonparametric test for interactions when we are concerned with investigation of the simultaneous effects of two or more factors in a median regression model with right censored survival data. Our approach is developed to detect interaction in special situations, when the covariates have a finite number of levels with a limited number of observations in each level, and it allows varying levels of variance and censorship at different levels of the covariates. Through simulation studies, we compare the power of detecting an interaction between the study group variable and a covariate using our proposed procedure with that of the Cox Proportional Hazard (PH) model and censored quantile regression model. We also assess the impact of censoring rate and type on the standard error of the estimators of parameters. Finally, we illustrate application of our proposed method to real life data from Prospective Observational Multicenter Major Trauma Transfusion (PROMMTT) study to test an interaction effect between type of injury and study sites using median time for a trauma patient to receive three units of red blood cells. The results from simulation studies indicate that our procedure performs better than both Cox PH model and censored quantile regression model based on statistical power for detecting the interaction, especially when the number of observations is small. It is also relatively less sensitive to censoring rates or even the presence of conditionally independent censoring that is conditional on the levels of covariates.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1170-1187
Number of pages18
JournalStatistical Methods in Medical Research
Volume28
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 1 2019
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Interaction
  • PROMMTT
  • censoring
  • median survival time
  • nonparametric test

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Epidemiology
  • Statistics and Probability
  • Health Information Management

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