The Attractiveness of an Additive Hazard Model: An Example from Medical Demography

With the intention of studying sociodemographic differentials in theelevated mortality from cancer, a mixed additive-multiplicativecontinuous-time hazard model with categorical covariates is suggested. Thismodel is a simple and plausible extension of the multiplicative hazard modeldemographers are well acquainted with. As an empirical example, survival fromprostate cancer among Norwegian men is examined on the basis of individualregister and census data. The model has some advantages compared to themodels based on an additive mortality structure that have previously beenused in studies of cancer survival. In other demographic research areas, itcould be an interesting alternative to the commonly employed multiplicativehazard model.