Assessing accuracy of a continuous screening test in the presence of verification bias

Summary.  In studies to assess the accuracy of a screening test, often definitive disease assessment is too invasive or expensive to be ascertained on all the study subjects. Although it may be more ethical or cost effective to ascertain the true disease status with a higher rate in study subjects where the screening test or additional information is suggestive of disease, estimates of accuracy can be biased in a study with such a design. This bias is known as verification bias. Verification bias correction methods that accommodate screening tests with binary or ordinal responses have been developed; however, no verification bias correction methods exist for tests with continuous results. We propose and compare imputation and reweighting bias-corrected estimators of true and false positive rates, receiver operating characteristic curves and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for continuous tests. Distribution theory and simulation studies are used to compare the proposed estimators with respect to bias, relative efficiency and robustness to model misspecification. The bias correction estimators proposed are applied to data from a study of screening tests for neonatal hearing loss.     

Treatment Evaluation in the Presence of Sample Selection

Sample selection and attrition are inherent in a range of treatment evaluation problems such as the estimation of the returns to schooling or training. Conventional estimators tackling selection bias typically rely on restrictive functional form assumptions that are unlikely to hold in reality. This paper shows identification of average and quantile treatment effects in the presence of the double selection problem into (i) a selective subpopulation (e.g., working—selection on unobservables) and (ii) a binary treatment (e.g., training—selection on observables) based on weighting observations by the inverse of a nested propensity score that characterizes either selection probability. Weighting estimators based on parametric propensity score models are applied to female labor market data to estimate the returns to education.     

Analysis of dependently truncated data in Cox framework

Truncation is a known feature of bone marrow transplant (BMT) registry data, for which the survival time of a leukemia patient is left truncated by the waiting time to transplant. It was recently noted that a longer waiting time was linked to poorer survival. A straightforward solution is a Cox model on the survival time with the waiting time as both truncation variable and covariate. The Cox model should also include other recognized risk factors as covariates. In this article, we focus on estimating the distribution function of waiting time and the probability of selection under the aforementioned Cox model.     

Working and disability expectancies at older ages: The role of childhood circumstances and education

The ability to work at older ages depends on health and education. Both accumulate starting very early in life. We assess how childhood disadvantages combine with education to affect working and health trajectories. Applying multistate period life tables to data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) for the period 2008–2014, we estimate how the residual life expectancy at age 50 is distributed in number of years of work and disability, by number of childhood disadvantages, gender, and race/ethnicity. Our findings indicate that number of childhood disadvantages is negatively associated with work and positively with disability, irrespective of gender and race/ethnicity. Childhood disadvantages intersect with low education resulting in shorter lives, and redistributing life years from work to disability. Among the highly educated, health and work differences between groups of childhood disadvantage are small. Combining multistate models and inverse probability weighting, we show that the return of high education is greater among the most disadvantaged.     

How social comparison influences reference price formation in a service context

What is the influence on reference price when the source of price information is anonymous versus social? This article investigates the formation of reference prices given an observed sequence of past prices in a service context. An experimental study suggests that, considering the same price information, if the source is social (i.e., the prices paid by colleagues), then consumers want to pay less. More specifically, social comparison changes the way individuals weigh information, attributing more importance to the lowest historical prices and to the range in price variations.     

Semiparametric regression methods for temporal processes subject to multiple sources of censoring

Process regression methodology is underdeveloped relative to the frequency with which pertinent data arise. In this article, the response-190 is a binary indicator process representing the joint event of being alive and remaining in a specific state. The process is indexed by time (e.g., time since diagnosis) and observed continuously. Data of this sort occur frequently in the study of chronic disease. A general area of application involves a recurrent event with non-negligible duration (e.g., hospitalization and associated length of hospital stay) and subject to a terminating event (e.g., death). We propose a semiparametric multiplicative model for the process version of the probability of being alive and in the (transient) state of interest. Under the proposed methods, the regression parameter is estimated through a procedure that does not require estimating the baseline probability. Unlike the majority of process regression methods, the proposed methods accommodate multiple sources of censoring. In particular, we derive a computationally convenient variant of inverse probability of censoring weighting based on the additive hazards model. We show that the regression parameter estimator is asymptotically normal, and that the baseline probability function estimator converges to a Gaussian process. Simulations demonstrate that our estimators have good finite sample performance. We apply our method to national end-stage liver disease data. The Canadian Journal of Statistics 48: 222–237; 2020 © 2019 Statistical Society of Canada     

Combining Inverse Probability Weighting and Multiple Imputation to Improve Robustness of Estimation

Inverse probability weighting (IPW) and multiple imputation are two widely adopted approaches dealing with missing data. The former models the selection probability, and the latter models data distribution. Consistent estimation requires correct specification of corresponding models. Although the augmented IPW method provides an extra layer of protection on consistency, it is usually not sufficient in practice as the true data‐generating process is unknown. This paper proposes a method combining the two approaches in the same spirit of calibration in sampling survey literature. Multiple models for both the selection probability and data distribution can be simultaneously accounted for, and the resulting estimator is consistent if any model is correctly specified. The proposed method is within the framework of estimating equations and is general enough to cover regression analysis with missing outcomes and/or missing covariates. Results on both theoretical and numerical investigation are provided.     

目标导向层次分析方法

对含有抽象属性的多属性层次结构而言,层次分析法即AHP（包括DIS-AHP、ABS-AHP、IDE-AHP和SUP-AHP四种具体方法）会因比率比较基准缺失、权重内涵模糊不清或方案评价不保序而缺乏科学理性。为发展AHP,基于摆幅置权（SW）判断模式和多属性决策属性价值公度方法,首先给出了能为层次结构抽象属性上的SW判断提供支持的规约性多属性决策属性价值公度方法,然后由此并结合多属性价值理论给出了能够克服现有层次分析法内在缺陷的目标导向层次分析方法即ToAHP。相对于AHP,ToAHP在判断模式与权重内涵、方法建构的理论基础和相关假设检验、方案评价保序与其内在数理依据上具有明显的相对科学合理性。应用分析表明：在输入信息可比的条件下,ToAHP明显优于AHP的四种分析方法之中最具可信性的SUP-AHP方法。     

不均等选择概率下的加权调整研究

从不均等选择概率的角度,提出两类常见的权数调整类型及其调整方法:一是规模调整,使得样本单元权数之和等于总体规模;二是结构调整,使得样本结构和总体结构一致,并构造出加权调整的设计效应模型,应用于复杂样本设计。案例分析显示,加权调整往往导致设计效应变大,带来负的效应,但校准调整能降低设计效应,提高估计精度。     

基于多指标正交试验设计的SLS快速成型工艺参数优化

为提高SLS成型系统堆积方向微细结构的制作质量,以过度烧结深度、烧结密度和Z向尺寸偏差为优化指标,采用多指标的正交试验设计方法,通过极差分析法,讨论激光功率、预热温度、激光扫描速度、分层厚度等成型工艺参数对试件质量的影响,利用综合平衡法确定了最优工艺参数组合。试验结果表明：激光功率选取16 W,预热温度选取98℃,激光扫描速度选取3 m/s,分层厚度选取0.15 mm时,试件的制作质量为最优。试验结果有助于SLS快速成型系统提高堆积方向微细结构的制作质量。