Multistate modelling of competing risks

Abstract

Competing risks models analyse the time until some first event and the event type that occurs at that time. In contrast, standard survival analysis considers the time until some first event only. Examples include disease-free survival and length of hospital stay. Disease-free survival is observed either at the time the disease in question is diagnosed or at the time of death without prior disease. Length of hospital stay ends with either discharge alive or hospital death. In the latter example, survival models consider length of stay with a combined endpoint discharge alive/hospital death. Competing risks also model the endpoint type. Competing risks do not model subsequent events such as death after hospital discharge. To do this, more complex multistate models are needed, which is the topic of the multistate part of this book Competing Risks and Multistate Models with R Pages 41-53