Abstract
Study objective: The purpose of this paper is to give an overview and comparison of different easily applicable statistical techniques to analyse recurrent event data.
Setting: These techniques include naive techniques and longitudinal techniques such as Cox regression for recurrent events, generalised estimating equations (GEE), and random coefficient analysis. The different techniques are illustrated with a dataset from a randomised controlled trial regarding the treatment of lateral epicondylitis.
Main results: The use of different statistical techniques leads to different results and different conclusions regarding the effectiveness of the different intervention strategies.
Conclusions: If you are interested in a particular short term or long term result, simple naive techniques are appropriate. However, if the development of a particular outcome is of interest, statistical techniques that consider the recurrent events and additionally corrects for the dependency of the observations are necessary.
Full Text
The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (84.2 KB).
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Clayton D. Some approaches to the analysis of recurrent event data. Stat Methods Med Res. 1994;3(3):244–262. doi: 10.1177/096228029400300304. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Cumming R. G., Kelsey J. L., Nevitt M. C. Methodologic issues in the study of frequent and recurrent health problems. Falls in the elderly. Ann Epidemiol. 1990 Oct;1(1):49–56. doi: 10.1016/1047-2797(90)90018-n. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Eisen E. A. Methodology for analyzing episodic events. Scand J Work Environ Health. 1999;25 (Suppl 4):36–42. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Glynn R. J., Stukel T. A., Sharp S. M., Bubolz T. A., Freeman J. L., Fisher E. S. Estimating the variance of standardized rates of recurrent events, with application to hospitalizations among the elderly in New England. Am J Epidemiol. 1993 Apr 1;137(7):776–786. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a116738. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Hu F. B., Goldberg J., Hedeker D., Flay B. R., Pentz M. A. Comparison of population-averaged and subject-specific approaches for analyzing repeated binary outcomes. Am J Epidemiol. 1998 Apr 1;147(7):694–703. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a009511. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Kelly P. J., Lim L. L. Survival analysis for recurrent event data: an application to childhood infectious diseases. Stat Med. 2000 Jan 15;19(1):13–33. doi: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0258(20000115)19:1<13::aid-sim279>3.0.co;2-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Peduzzi Peter, Henderson William, Hartigan Pamela, Lavori Philip. Analysis of randomized controlled trials. Epidemiol Rev. 2002;24(1):26–38. doi: 10.1093/epirev/24.1.26. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Smidt Nynke, van der Windt Daniëlle A. W. M., Assendelft Willem J. J., Devillé Walter L. J. M., Korthals-de Bos Ingeborg B. C., Bouter Lex M. Corticosteroid injections, physiotherapy, or a wait-and-see policy for lateral epicondylitis: a randomised controlled trial. Lancet. 2002 Feb 23;359(9307):657–662. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(02)07811-X. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Stürmer T., Glynn R. J., Kliebsch U., Brenner H. Analytic strategies for recurrent events in epidemiologic studies: background and application to hospitalization risk in the elderly. J Clin Epidemiol. 2000 Jan;53(1):57–64. doi: 10.1016/s0895-4356(99)00137-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Wei L. J., Glidden D. V. An overview of statistical methods for multiple failure time data in clinical trials. Stat Med. 1997 Apr 30;16(8):833–851. doi: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0258(19970430)16:8<833::aid-sim538>3.0.co;2-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Zeger S. L., Liang K. Y. An overview of methods for the analysis of longitudinal data. Stat Med. 1992 Oct-Nov;11(14-15):1825–1839. doi: 10.1002/sim.4780111406. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
Associated Data
This section collects any data citations, data availability statements, or supplementary materials included in this article.