Restricted mean survival time regression model with time‐dependent covariates

• Published in: Statistics in medicine Vol. 41; no. 21; pp. 4081 - 4090
• Main Authors: Zhang, Chengfeng, Huang, Baoyi, Wu, Hongji, Yuan, Hao, Hou, Yawen, Chen, Zheng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken, USA John Wiley & Sons, Inc 20-09-2022; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: inverse probability of censoring weighting; Medical research; Medical statistics; restricted mean survival time; Statistical analysis; survival analysis; time‐dependent covariates
• ISSN: 0277-6715; 1097-0258
• DOI: 10.1002/sim.9495

In clinical or epidemiological follow‐up studies, methods based on time scale indicators such as the restricted mean survival time (RMST) have been developed to some extent. Compared with traditional hazard rate indicator system methods, the RMST is easier to interpret and does not require the proportional hazard assumption. To date, regression models based on the RMST are indirect or direct models of the RMST and baseline covariates. However, time‐dependent covariates are becoming increasingly common in follow‐up studies. Based on the inverse probability of censoring weighting (IPCW) method, we developed a regression model of the RMST and time‐dependent covariates. Through Monte Carlo simulation, we verified the estimation performance of the regression parameters of the proposed model. Compared with the time‐dependent Cox model and the fixed (baseline) covariate RMST model, the time‐dependent RMST model has a better prediction ability. Finally, an example of heart transplantation was used to verify the above conclusions.