Generalized Method of Moments for Additive Hazards Model with Clustered Dental Survival Data

摘要

For multivariate survival data, we study the generalized method of moments (GMM) approach to estimation and inference based on the marginal additive hazards model. We propose an efficient iterative algorithm using closed-form solutions, which dramatically reduces the computational burden. Asymptotic normality of the proposed estimators is established, and the corresponding variance-covariance matrix can be consistently estimated. Inference procedures are derived based on the asymptotic chi-squared distribution of the GMM objective function. Simulation studies are conducted to empirically examine the finite sample performance of the proposed method, and a real data example from a dental study is used for illustration.