A framework for joint assessment of a terminal event and a score existing only in the absence of the terminal event

Fuente: arXiv
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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Holst, Klaus Kähler, Nordland, Andreas, Furberg, Julie Funch, Damgaard, Lars Holm, Pipper, Christian Bressen
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Holst, Klaus Kähler
Nordland, Andreas
Furberg, Julie Funch
Damgaard, Lars Holm
Pipper, Christian Bressen
author_facet Holst, Klaus Kähler
Nordland, Andreas
Furberg, Julie Funch
Damgaard, Lars Holm
Pipper, Christian Bressen
contents Analysis of data from randomized controlled trials in vulnerable populations requires special attention when assessing treatment effect by a score measuring, e.g., disease stage or activity together with onset of prevalent terminal events. In reality, it is impossible to disentangle a disease score from the terminal event, since the score is not clinically meaningful after this event. In this work, we propose to assess treatment interventions simultaneously on the terminal event and the disease score in the absence of a terminal event. Our proposal is based on a natural data-generating mechanism, respecting that a disease score does not exist beyond the terminal event. We use modern semi-parametric statistical methods to provide robust and efficient estimation of the risk of terminal event and expected disease score conditional on no terminal event at a pre-specified landmark time. We also use the simultaneous asymptotic behaviour of our estimators to develop a powerful closed testing procedure for confirmatory assessment of treatment effect on both onset of terminal event and level of disease score in the absence of a terminal event. A simulation study mimicking a large-scale outcome trial in chronic kidney patients as well as an analysis of that trial is provided to assess performance.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_03942
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A framework for joint assessment of a terminal event and a score existing only in the absence of the terminal event
Holst, Klaus Kähler
Nordland, Andreas
Furberg, Julie Funch
Damgaard, Lars Holm
Pipper, Christian Bressen
Methodology
Analysis of data from randomized controlled trials in vulnerable populations requires special attention when assessing treatment effect by a score measuring, e.g., disease stage or activity together with onset of prevalent terminal events. In reality, it is impossible to disentangle a disease score from the terminal event, since the score is not clinically meaningful after this event. In this work, we propose to assess treatment interventions simultaneously on the terminal event and the disease score in the absence of a terminal event. Our proposal is based on a natural data-generating mechanism, respecting that a disease score does not exist beyond the terminal event. We use modern semi-parametric statistical methods to provide robust and efficient estimation of the risk of terminal event and expected disease score conditional on no terminal event at a pre-specified landmark time. We also use the simultaneous asymptotic behaviour of our estimators to develop a powerful closed testing procedure for confirmatory assessment of treatment effect on both onset of terminal event and level of disease score in the absence of a terminal event. A simulation study mimicking a large-scale outcome trial in chronic kidney patients as well as an analysis of that trial is provided to assess performance.
title A framework for joint assessment of a terminal event and a score existing only in the absence of the terminal event
topic Methodology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.03942