Hypothesis Testing of Hazard Ratio Parameters in Marginal Models for Multivariate Failure Time Data

Marginal hazard models for multivariate failure time data have been studied extensively in recent literature. However, standard hypothesis test statistics based on the likelihood method are not exactly appropriate for this kind of model. In this paper, extensions of the three commonly used likelihood hypothesis test statistics are discussed. Generalized Wald, generalized score and generalized likelihood ratio tests for hazard ratio parameters in a marginal hazard model for multivariate failure time data are proposed and their asymptotic distributions examined. The finite sample properties of these statistics are studied through simulations. The proposed method is applied to data from Busselton Population Health Surveys.     

On the equivalence of some test criteria based on BAN estimators for the multivariate exponential family

For the general multivariate exponential family of distributions it is shown that Rao's test criterion based on efficient scores is algebraically identical to the general chi-squared criterion based on maximum likelihood estimates and, similarly, that the Wald statistic is algebraically identical to the general minimum modified chi-squared statistic using linearization; these results are valid also for the multisample versions. Thus, these are extensions to the general exponential family of the findings due to Silvey (1970) and Bhapkar (1966), respectively, for the special case of the multinomial family.It is also shown that the general forms of the chi-squared and modified chi-squared criteria reduce to their respective well-known forms for the multivariate symmetric power series distribution. This finding is, thus, an extension of results noted by Ferguson (1958) and Clickner (1976) for the special case of the multinomial distribution.     

Approximate Likelihoods for Generalized Linear Errors-in-variables Models

When measurement error is present in covariates, it is well known that naïvely fitting a generalized linear model results in inconsistent inferences. Several methods have been proposed to adjust for measurement error without making undue distributional assumptions about the unobserved true covariates. Stefanski and Carroll focused on an unbiased estimating function rather than a likelihood approach. Their estimating function, known as the conditional score, exists for logistic regression models but has two problems: a poorly behaved Wald test and multiple solutions. They suggested a heuristic procedure to identify the best solution that works well in practice but has little theoretical support compared with maximum likelihood estimation. To help to resolve these problems, we propose a conditional quasi-likelihood to accompany the conditional score that provides an alternative to Wald's test and successfully identifies the consistent solution in large samples.     

A survey on multivariate chi-square distributions and their applications in testing multiple hypotheses

We are concerned with three different types of multivariate chi-square distributions. Their members play important roles as limiting distributions of vectors of test statistics in several applications of multiple hypotheses testing. We explain these applications and consider the computation of multiplicity-adjusted p-values under the respective global hypothesis. By means of numerical examples, we demonstrate how much gain in level exhaustion or, equivalently, power can be achieved with corresponding multivariate multiple tests compared with approaches which are only based on univariate marginal distributions and do not take the dependence structure among the test statistics into account. As a further contribution of independent value, we provide an overview of essentially all analytic formulas for computing multivariate chi-square probabilities of the considered types which are available up to present. These formulas were scattered in the previous literature and are presented here in a unified manner.     

Matrix-analytic Models and their Analysis

We survey phase-type distributions and Markovian point processes, aspects of how to use such models in applied probability calculations and how to fit them to observed data. A phase-type distribution is defined as the time to absorption in a finite continuous time Markov process with one absorbing state. This class of distributions is dense and contains many standard examples like all combinations of exponential in series/parallel. A Markovian point process is governed by a finite continuous time Markov process (typically ergodic), such that points are generated at a Poisson intensity depending on the underlying state and at transitions; a main special case is a Markov-modulated Poisson process. In both cases, the analytic formulas typically contain matrix-exponentials, and the matrix formalism carried over when the models are used in applied probability calculations as in problems in renewal theory, random walks and queueing. The statistical analysis is typically based upon the EM algorithm, viewing the whole sample path of the background Markov process as the latent variable.     

Third-Order Asymptotic Distributions of Classic Test Statistics for One-Parameter Exponential Family Models

ABSTRACT

In this article we derive third-order asymptotic expansions for the non null distribution functions of four classic statistics under a sequence of local alternatives in one-parameter exponential family models. Our results are quite general and cover a wide range of important distributions.     

Calculating the power or sample size for the logistic and proportional hazards models

An algorithm is presented for calculating the power for the logistic and proportional hazards models in which some of the covariates are discrete and the remainders are multivariate normal. The mean and covariance matrix of the multivariate normal covariates may depend on the discrete covariates.

The algorithm, which finds the power of the Wald test, uses the result that the information matrix can be calculated using univariate numerical integration even when there are several continuous covariates. The algorithm is checked using simulation and in certain situations gives more accurate results than current methods which are based on simple formulae. The algorithm is used to explore properties of these models, in particular, the power gain from a prognostic covariate in the analysis of a clinical trial or observational study. The methods can be extended to determine power for other generalized linear models.     

Pooling multivariate data under W, LR and LM tests

Two independent random samples are drawn from two multivariate normal populations with mean vectors μ1 and μ2 and a common variance-covariance matrix Σ. Ahmed and Saleh (1990) considered preliminary test maximum likelihood estimator (PMLTE) for estimating μ1 based on the Hotelling's T _N ², when it is suspected that μ1=μ2. In this paper, the PTMLE based on the Wald (W), Likelihood Ratio (LR) and Lagrangian Multiplier (LM) tests are considered. Using the quadratic risk function, the conditions of superiority of the proposed estimator for departure parameter are derived. A max-min rule for the size of the preliminary test of significance is presented. It is demonstrated that the PTMLE based on W test produces the highest minimum guaranteed efficiencies compared to UMLE among the three test procedures.     

Gamma failure‐time mixture models: yet another way to establish efficacy

Using a Yamaguchi‐type generalized gamma failure‐time mixture model, we analyse the data from a study of autologous and allogeneic bone marrow transplantation in the treatment of high‐risk refractory acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, focusing on the time to recurrence of disease. We develop maximum likelihood techniques for the joint estimation of the surviving fractions and the survivor functions. This includes an approximation to the derivative of the survivor function with respect to the shape parameter. We obtain the maximum likelihood estimates of the model parameters. We also compute the variance‐covariance matrix of the parameter estimators. The extended family of generalized gamma failure‐time mixture models is flexible enough to include many commonly used failure‐time distributions as special cases. Yet these models are not used in practice because of computational difficulties. We claim that we have overcome this problem. The proposed approximation to the derivative of the survivor function with respect to the shape parameter can be used in any statistical package. We also address the issue of lack of identifiability. We point out that there can be a substantial advantage to using the gamma failure‐time mixture models over nonparametric methods. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

More on the Preliminary Test Estimator in Almost Unbiased Liu Regression

This article is concerned with the parameter estimation in linear regression model when it is suspected that the regression coefficients are the subspace of the equality restrictions. The objective of this article is to introduce the preliminary test almost unbiased Liu estimators (PTAULE) based on the Wald (W), the likelihood ratio (LR), and the Lagrangian multiplier (LM) tests and compare the proposed estimators in the sense of the quadratic bias and mean square error (MSE) criterion.