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The median hazard ratio : a useful measure of variance and general contextual effects in multilevel survival analysis

Austin, Peter C ; Wagner, Philippe LU and Merlo, Juan LU orcid (2017) In Statistics in Medicine 36(6). p.928-938
Abstract

Multilevel data occurs frequently in many research areas like health services research and epidemiology. A suitable way to analyze such data is through the use of multilevel regression models (MLRM). MLRM incorporate cluster-specific random effects which allow one to partition the total individual variance into between-cluster variation and between-individual variation. Statistically, MLRM account for the dependency of the data within clusters and provide correct estimates of uncertainty around regression coefficients. Substantively, the magnitude of the effect of clustering provides a measure of the General Contextual Effect (GCE). When outcomes are binary, the GCE can also be quantified by measures of heterogeneity like the Median... (More)

Multilevel data occurs frequently in many research areas like health services research and epidemiology. A suitable way to analyze such data is through the use of multilevel regression models (MLRM). MLRM incorporate cluster-specific random effects which allow one to partition the total individual variance into between-cluster variation and between-individual variation. Statistically, MLRM account for the dependency of the data within clusters and provide correct estimates of uncertainty around regression coefficients. Substantively, the magnitude of the effect of clustering provides a measure of the General Contextual Effect (GCE). When outcomes are binary, the GCE can also be quantified by measures of heterogeneity like the Median Odds Ratio (MOR) calculated from a multilevel logistic regression model. Time-to-event outcomes within a multilevel structure occur commonly in epidemiological and medical research. However, the Median Hazard Ratio (MHR) that corresponds to the MOR in multilevel (i.e., 'frailty') Cox proportional hazards regression is rarely used. Analogously to the MOR, the MHR is the median relative change in the hazard of the occurrence of the outcome when comparing identical subjects from two randomly selected different clusters that are ordered by risk. We illustrate the application and interpretation of the MHR in a case study analyzing the hazard of mortality in patients hospitalized for acute myocardial infarction at hospitals in Ontario, Canada. We provide R code for computing the MHR. The MHR is a useful and intuitive measure for expressing cluster heterogeneity in the outcome and, thereby, estimating general contextual effects in multilevel survival analysis. © 2016 The Authors. Statistics in Medicine published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Statistics in Medicine
volume
36
issue
6
pages
928 - 938
publisher
John Wiley & Sons Inc.
external identifiers
  • pmid:27885709
  • scopus:85005846706
  • wos:000394781600004
ISSN
1097-0258
DOI
10.1002/sim.7188
project
Flernivåanalyser av individuell heterogenitet: innovativa koncepter och metodologiska ansatser inom Folkhälsa och Socialepidemiologi
Multilevel analysis of individual heterogeneity
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
25b9db61-54e2-424d-bf69-7c544a012e1c
date added to LUP
2016-12-03 07:58:25
date last changed
2024-11-02 09:54:42
@article{25b9db61-54e2-424d-bf69-7c544a012e1c,
  abstract     = {{<p>Multilevel data occurs frequently in many research areas like health services research and epidemiology. A suitable way to analyze such data is through the use of multilevel regression models (MLRM). MLRM incorporate cluster-specific random effects which allow one to partition the total individual variance into between-cluster variation and between-individual variation. Statistically, MLRM account for the dependency of the data within clusters and provide correct estimates of uncertainty around regression coefficients. Substantively, the magnitude of the effect of clustering provides a measure of the General Contextual Effect (GCE). When outcomes are binary, the GCE can also be quantified by measures of heterogeneity like the Median Odds Ratio (MOR) calculated from a multilevel logistic regression model. Time-to-event outcomes within a multilevel structure occur commonly in epidemiological and medical research. However, the Median Hazard Ratio (MHR) that corresponds to the MOR in multilevel (i.e., 'frailty') Cox proportional hazards regression is rarely used. Analogously to the MOR, the MHR is the median relative change in the hazard of the occurrence of the outcome when comparing identical subjects from two randomly selected different clusters that are ordered by risk. We illustrate the application and interpretation of the MHR in a case study analyzing the hazard of mortality in patients hospitalized for acute myocardial infarction at hospitals in Ontario, Canada. We provide R code for computing the MHR. The MHR is a useful and intuitive measure for expressing cluster heterogeneity in the outcome and, thereby, estimating general contextual effects in multilevel survival analysis. © 2016 The Authors. Statistics in Medicine published by John Wiley &amp; Sons Ltd.</p>}},
  author       = {{Austin, Peter C and Wagner, Philippe and Merlo, Juan}},
  issn         = {{1097-0258}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{6}},
  pages        = {{928--938}},
  publisher    = {{John Wiley & Sons Inc.}},
  series       = {{Statistics in Medicine}},
  title        = {{The median hazard ratio : a useful measure of variance and general contextual effects in multilevel survival analysis}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/sim.7188}},
  doi          = {{10.1002/sim.7188}},
  volume       = {{36}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}