Estimation of continuous odds ratio function with censored data

중도절단된 자료를 포함한 승산비 연속함수의 추정

The odds ratio is used for assessing the disease-exposure association, because epidemiological data for case-control of cohort studies are often summarized into 2 ${\times}$ 2 tables. In this paper we define the odds ratio function(ORF) that extends odds ratio used on discrete survival event data to continuous survival time data and propose estimation procedures with censored data. The first one is a nonparametric estimator based on the Nelson-Aalen estimator of comulative hazard function, and the others are obtained using the concept of empirical odds ratio. Asymptotic properties such as consistency and weak convergence results are also provided. The ORF provides a simple interpretation and is comparable to survival function or comulative hazard function in comparing two groups. The mean square errors are investigated via Monte Carlo simulation. The result are finally illustrated using the Melanoma data.