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E Slud

Publications and source records attributed to E Slud.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

Competing risks bias arising from an omitted risk factor.

The authors describe a form of selection bias that may arise when a second disease selectively removes from the population persons susceptible to the primary disease of interest. Two examples of this bias are given: 1) a lack of association between an exposure and the primary disease may appear as an inverse association, and 2) a direct association between exposure and primary disease may be greatly attenuated. These examples of bias require the presence of an unknown risk factor in addition to the exposure of interest.

Cholesterol↗

How dependent causes of death can make risk factors appear protective.

It is shown, using the results of Slud and Rubinstein (1983, Biometrika 70, 643-649) in a specially constructed theoretical example, that competing latent failure times Ti and Ci and a two-level covariate Vi, if analyzed as though Ti and Ci are independent for each Vi level, can lead to exactly the wrong conclusion about the ordering of Pr(Ti greater than or equal to t[Vi = 1) and Pr(Ti greater than or equal to t[Vi = 0) for every t. This phenomenon can never be excluded on purely statistical grounds using such data and should be considered when interpreting data analyses involving competing risks.

Cause of Death↗