Novel nonparametric methods for prognosis studies with missing covariates

缺少时间无关或时间相关协变量的生存数据在预后研究中很常见。现有的方法大多集中在标准的比例风险模型上，在某些应用中可能过于局限。为了获得对数据的全面理解，确定与生存时间相关的变量也很重要。在本研究中，研究人员将为缺少协变量的更灵活的模型开发非参数方法，并在这种复杂的设置中研究变量选择。在生物医学研究、计量经济学、环境研究、行为科学和社会科学中，对感兴趣的事件和多协变量及时收集信息，预计将产生广泛的影响和应用。这项拟议的研究将促进来自不同机构/部门和背景的研究人员之间的合作。它将促进佐治亚大学统计系和新成立的流行病学和生物统计系的教学、培训和学习。在本研究中进行的研究将有助于开发生存分析，缺失数据和变量选择的高级研究生课程。它将为研究人员所指导的研究生创造具有挑战性的统计项目。这项建议的研究成果将通过在主要统计会议上的介绍来传播。所开发的软件将公开提供，以便所提出的方法可以在各个领域的实践中很容易地使用。

Survival data with missing time-independent or time-dependent covariates are commonly encountered in prognosis studies. Existing approaches mostly focus on the standard proportional hazards model, which may be too restricted in some applications. To obtain a comprehensive understanding of data, it is also important to identify variables that are associated with survival time. In this study, the investigators will develop nonparametric approaches for more flexible models with missing covariates, and investigate variable selection in this complicated setup.The proposed research is expected to have broad impacts and application in biomedical studies, econometrics, environmental studies, behavioral and social sciences, where information is collected on time to an event of interest and multiple covariates. This proposed study will foster collaborations among investigators from different institutions/departments and backgrounds. It will promote teaching, training and learning in the Statistics Department and the newly founded Epidemiology and Biostatistics Department at the University of Georgia. Research conducted in this study will help develop advanced graduate courses in survival analysis, missing data and variable selection. It will create challenging statistical projects for graduate students that the investigators are supervising. Research results from this proposal will be disseminated through presentation at major statistical meetings. Software developed will be made publicly available, so that the proposed methods can be readily used in practice in various fields.