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  • 1.  Censoring at Baseline

    Posted 04-27-2017 23:48
    I am performing a between-treatment comparison of time to completion of a task at one visit, where the time is constrained by a specified maximum (commonly referred to as Type 1 censoring).  The same task is performed at Baseline, with some observations censored by the same specified maximum.  I am considering analysis using Cox model. In SAS, the model would be like MODEL TIME*Censor(1)= TRT BASELINE. Is there any way to incorporate censoring at Baseline in the model? Is there any theoretical reason to do so?

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    David Bristol
    Statistical Consulting Services, Inc.
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  • 2.  RE: Censoring at Baseline

    Posted 04-28-2017 00:24

    I'm getting the sense that the same subject is tested twice, once at baseline and once after their assigned treatment. Is that true?


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  • 3.  RE: Censoring at Baseline

    Posted 05-01-2017 01:07
    Eric,
    Yes - the patients are tested pre-treatment at Baseline and then tested again at one post-Baseline visit after treatment.

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    David Bristol
    Statistical Consulting Services, Inc.
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  • 4.  RE: Censoring at Baseline

    Posted 04-28-2017 12:51

    You are looking for an analog for ANCOVA with a baseline covariate for a censored response and censored baseline.  The problem is that linear regression models (I know proportional hazard models are not exactly linear but they are similar) is that the x's are known and have a defined error distribution for the response, usually normal or binary.   You could treat the baseline as categorical and divide into dummy variables where each dummy has the category of "more than censor point" as a reference.  This is what they do in tree models and some GAM models.    But some people are opposed to discretization. 

     

    Another approach is to bring the baseline to the left side of the equation and model 'time to event' of both endpoints, introducing an assumed correlation.  There is an extensive literature on recurrence, however it usually deals with consecutive events, not events with distinct start times.  An area where these type of problems do come up is in lab work with upper and lower detection limits which act as censoring points.  There are articles on 'bivariate normal survival models' that have applications in comparing assays. 

     






  • 5.  RE: Censoring at Baseline

    Posted 05-01-2017 13:50
    You might look at the econometric literature, and there may be some version of a Tobit model or what econometricians call "limited dependent variables" that may apply

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    Chris Barker, Ph.D.
    Consultant and
    Adjunct Associate Professor of Biostatistics


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    "In composition you have all the time you want to decide what to say in 15 seconds, in improvisation you have 15 seconds."
    -Steve Lacy
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  • 6.  RE: Censoring at Baseline

    Posted 05-01-2017 15:39

    David,

    To answer your specific questions,

    1.       I don't know of a specific theoretical commandment to incorporate censoring at baseline into the model, but my instincts tell me I ought to try, especially if there is a fair amount of censoring at baseline.

    2.       How I might add it (if I were doing so) would be to replace BASELINE in your model with two variables, perhaps called BaseTime and BaseCens. BaseCens would be the censoring indicator for whether the baseline task-completion time was censored at the specified maximum time. BaseTime would be equal to the specified maximum time when censoring took place, or equal to the observed baseline task-completion time when censoring did not take place. I'm guessing that BaseTime would already be equal to BASELINE in your particular case, in which case all we really would be doing is adding BaseCens as a second covariate to your model. 

    a.       For purposes of clarity, my modification of your model would be TIME*Censor(1) = TRT BaseTime BaseCens.

    But that's just one idea. There may be better ideas than that one. Georgette Asherman made reference to lab-work problems where the analytes have upper and lower detection limits which act as censoring points. If she knows of literature articles in which the censored analytes are used as predictor variables in either a regression model or a classification model, some of those might feature better ideas.  


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  • 7.  RE: Censoring at Baseline

    Posted 05-01-2017 19:22
    Can you help us visualize your data by showing us a plot (some type of variability chart) of your full data structure?  For those like myself that are visually oriented, I have a hard time following a discussion that is totally in the model space wiithout seeing the data.  By the way I have extensive experience in reliability statistics and censoring in the high tech industry, but your problem is a little foreign to me. Thanks!

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    Walter Flom
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