title: Mixed-effects varying-coefficient model with skewed distribution coupled with cause-specific varying-coefficient hazard model with random-effects for longitudinal-competing risks data analysis.
abstract: It is well known that there is strong relationship between HIV viral load and CD4 cell counts in AIDS studies. However, the relationship between them changes during the course of treatment and may vary among individuals. During treatments, some individuals may experience terminal events such as death. Because the terminal event may be related to the individual's viral load measurements, the terminal mechanism is non-ignorable. Furthermore, there exists competing risks from multiple types of events, such as AIDS-related death and other death. Most joint models for the analysis of longitudinal-survival data developed in literatures have focused on constant coefficients and assume symmetric distribution for the endpoints, which does not meet the needs for investigating the nature of varying relationship between HIV viral load and CD4 cell counts in practice. We develop a mixed-effects varying-coefficient model with skewed distribution coupled with cause-specific varying-coefficient hazard model with random-effects to deal with varying relationship between the two endpoints for longitudinal-competing risks survival data. A fully Bayesian inference procedure is established to estimate parameters in the joint model. The proposed method is applied to a multicenter AIDS cohort study. Various scenarios-based potential models that account for partial data features are compared. Some interesting findings are presented.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics , State University of New York , Rensselaer , New York , USA.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: b Department of Mathematical Sciences , Michigan Technological University , Houghton , Michigan , USA.
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: c Department of Statistics , Nanjing Audit University , Nanjing , China.
authors.forename: Guangying
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: d Department of Preventive Medicine , Sun Yat-sen University , Guangzhou , China.
authors.forename: Guang-Hui
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: e Department of Health Policy , Management and Behavior, State University of New York , Albany , New York , USA.
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Qian
mesh_terms: D001499:Bayes Theorem; D018791:CD4 Lymphocyte Count; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D015233:Models, Statistical; D015337:Multicenter Studies as Topic; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D018570:Risk Assessment
keywords: AIDS study; Bayesian inference; competing risks; longitudinal data; mixed-effects varying-coefficient models; skewed distribution; survival data; varying-coefficient hazard models