Statistical Issues in AIDS Research

描述(申请人提供)：在确认艾滋病毒病毒25年后，艾滋病流行仍在继续，目前全球估计有3300万人感染，每年新增250万人。预防和治疗艾滋病毒感染的研究变得越来越复杂，分析挑战也相应地变得复杂。在这项申请中，我们概述了发展统计方法的计划，这些方法将直接适用于艾滋病毒/艾滋病研究领域的当前问题。特别是，我们建议开发分析来自阶梯式楔形随机试验、预防艾滋病毒母婴传播的试验、不协调伙伴研究以及利用两阶段或其他复杂抽样设计的试验或研究的数据的方法。由于HIV感染通常是无症状的，感染时间受两个测试日期的限制，我们继续研究区间删失数据的方法，并专注于与竞争风险和相关区间删失数据相关的问题。最后，由于寻找有效的HIV疫苗面临着越来越大的挑战，我们建议开发新的统计方法来分析基于T细胞的疫苗以及HIV抗原-抗体相互作用的研究数据。公共卫生相关性：这项研究将开发用于艾滋病毒感染研究的统计方法。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Twenty five years after identification of the HIV virus, the AIDS epidemic continues with an estimated 33 million individuals currently infected worldwide and 2.5 million new infections each year. Research to prevent and treat HIV infection has grown increasing sophisticated and the analytic challenges have become correspondingly complex. In this application we outline plans for the development of statistical methods that will be directly applicable to current problems in the field of HIV/AIDS research. In particular, we propose to develop methods for the analysis of data from stepped wedge randomized trials, trials to prevent mother to child transmission of HIV, discordant partner studies, and trials or studies which utilize two-phase or other complex sampling designs. Since HIV infection is typically asymptomatic and the time of infection is bounded by two test dates, we continue work on methods for interval censored data and focus on issues related to competing risks and correlated interval censored data. Finally, as the search for an effective HIV vaccine presents ever greater challenges, we propose to develop novel statistical methods for analyzing data from studies of T-cell based vaccines as well as HIV antigen-antibody interactions. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This research will develop statistical methods for use in studies of HIV infection.