Robustness of individual and marginal model-based estimates: A sensitivity analysis of flexible parametric models.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Flexible parametric survival models (FPMs) are commonly used in epidemiology. These are preferred as a wide range of hazard shapes can be captured using splines to model the log-cumulative hazard function and can include time-dependent effects for more flexibility. An important issue is the number of knots used for splines. The reliability of estimates are assessed using English data for 10 cancer types and the use of online interactive graphs to enable a more comprehensive sensitivity analysis at the control of the user is demonstrated.

Methods

Sixty FPMs were fitted to each cancer type with varying degrees of freedom to model the baseline excess hazard and the main and time-dependent effect of age. For each model, we obtained age-specific, age-group and internal

SUBMITTER: Syriopoulou E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6363964 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature