title: A relative survival model for clustered responses.
abstract: Relative Survival is the ratio of the overall survival of a group of patients to the expected survival for a demographically similar group. It is commonly used in disease registries to estimate the effect of a particular disease when the true cause of death is not reliably known. Regression models for relative survival have been described and we extend these models to allow for clustered responses by embedding them into the class of Generalized linear mixed models (GLMM). The method is motivated and demonstrated by a data set from the HALLUCA study, an epidemiological study which investigated provision of medical care to lung cancer patients in the region of Halle in the eastern part of Germany.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Informatics, University of Halle-Wittenberg, Magdeburger Str. 8, 06097 Halle Saale, Germany. oliver.kuss@medizin.uni-halle.de
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kuss
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Blankenburg
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Haerting
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015233:Models, Statistical; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012307:Risk Factors; D016019:Survival Analysis