Sinusoidal Cox Regression—A Rare Cancer Example

ECU Author/Contributor (non-ECU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)

Jimmy Thomas Efird (Creator)

Institution

East Carolina University (ECU )

Web Site: http://www.ecu.edu/lib/

Abstract: Evidence of an association between survival time and date of birth would suggest an etiologic role for a seasonally variable environmental exposure occurring within a narrow perinatal time period. Risk factors that may exhibit seasonal epidemicity include diet, infectious agents, allergens, and antihistamine use. Typically data has been analyzed by simply categorizing births into months or seasons of the year and performing multiple pairwise comparisons. This paper presents a statistically robust alternative, based upon a trigonometric Cox regression model, to analyze the cyclic nature of birth dates related to patient survival. Disease birth-date results are presented using a sinusoidal plot with peak date(s) of relative risk and a single P value that indicates whether an overall statistically significant seasonal association is present. Advantages of this derivative-free method include ease of use, increased power to detect statistically significant associations, and the ability to avoid arbitrary, subjective demarcation of seasons.

Additional Information

Publication

Other

Cancer Informatics; 9: p. 265-279

Language: English

Date: 2010

Keywords

sinusoidal Cox regression, seasonality of birth

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