title: A simple local sensitivity analysis tool for nonignorable coarsening: application to dependent censoring.
abstract: Right- and interval-censored data are common special cases of coarsened data (Heitjan and Rubin, 1991, Annals of Statistics19, 2244-2253). As with missing data, standard statistical methods that ignore the random nature of the coarsening mechanism may lead to incorrect inferences. We extend a simple sensitivity analysis tool, the index of local sensitivity to nonignorability (Troxel, Ma, and Heitjan, 2004, Statistica Sinica14, 1221-1237), to the evaluation of nonignorability of the coarsening process in the general coarse-data model. By converting this index into a simple graphical display one can easily assess the sensitivity of key inferences to nonignorable coarsening. We illustrate the validity of the method with a simulated example, and apply it to right-censored data from an observational study of cardiac transplantation and to interval-censored data on time to detectable viral load from a clinical trial in HIV disease.
authors.affiliation: Center for Biostatistics in AIDS Research, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. jzhang@sdac.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Jiameng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Daniel F
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Heitjan
mesh_terms: D001699:Biometry / Q000379:methods*; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000821:virology; D016027:Heart Transplantation / Q000401:mortality / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D015233:Models, Statistical; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D016019:Survival Analysis