×

Rank tests for matched survival data. (English) Zbl 0924.62116

Summary: In a clinical trial with the time to an event as the outcome of interest, we may randomize a number of matched subjects, such as litters, to different treatments. The number of treatments equals the number of subjects per litter, two in the case of twins. In this case, the survival times of matched subjects could be dependent. Although the standard rank tests, such as the logrank and Wilcoxon tests, for independent samples may be used to test the equality of marginal survival distributions, their standard error should be modified to accommodate the possible dependence of survival times between matched subjects. We propose a method of calculating the standard error of the rank tests for paired two-sample survival data. The method is naturally extended to that for \(K\)-sample tests under dependence.

MSC:

62P10 Applications of statistics to biology and medical sciences; meta analysis
62G10 Nonparametric hypothesis testing
62G20 Asymptotic properties of nonparametric inference
Full Text: DOI