The Asymptotic Distribution of Mortality Rates in Competing Risks Analyses

摘要

For a sample of individuals from an animal or human population under observation in a clinical trial or life test, mortality rates are defined for each risk to which the population is exposed. By considering only the crude risk functions and cause-specific failure rates in a basic competing risks model, these mortality rates are shown to have an asymptotic normal distribution. An expression for the asymptotic correlation between a pair of mortality rates is thus obtained and a necessary and sufficient condition for their asymptotic independence is investigated in some general situations with reference to only the cause-specific failure rates and the survival function of the individuals. (Author)