Re: st: adjusting hazard ratios in st cox using offset

[Steve Samuels <sjsamuels@gmail.com>]

I'll just add that a model with only "main effects" of the other
procedures is difficult to interpret and probably badly fitting. With
enough data, you could fit some two-way interactions. But I would
investigate first how many different combinations of procedures you do 
have and form groups based on those. One way to start is.

******************************************************* egen combos =
group(proc_a proc_b proc_c proc_d proc_e)
*******************************************************

You might find, for example, that two of the procedures commonly or
rarely occur together. 

Steve

/*You have an interesting problem, but your proposal is flawed. Consider
the following simplified table for two procedures:

        |        proc_b
   proc_a |         0          1 |     Total
-----------+----------------------+----------
        0 |         .          5 |         5
        1 |         5          6 |        11
-----------+----------------------+----------
    Total |         5         11 |        16
You would like your model results to look like this:
proc_A     1.0
proc_B     ?

But this is impossible: with three groups you need two indicator
variables. Here is an example.

You have to define what you mean by "effect of proc_B adjusted for
proc_A." My suggestion would be to partition the data into two groups,
those with procedure A and those without procedure A.

Steve

***********Code Begins*********************
capture program drop _all
clear
input proc_a proc_b
1 0
1 1
0 1
0 1
0 1
1 0
1 1
1 0
1 1
0 1
0 1
1 1
1 1
1 0
1 1
1 0
end
// define 3 groups
gen g10 = proc_a==1 & proc_b==0
gen g01 = proc_a==0 & proc_b==1
gen g11 = proc_a==1 & proc_b==1
set seed 5503211
gen stime = max(_n + 5*runiform(),1)

stset stime
stcox  g10 g01 g11, nohr nolog  //3 indicators "g11" dropped
stcox proc_a proc_b, nohr nolog  // 2 indicators
stcox proc_b if proc_a==1, nohr nolog
// the following doesn't work with only 2 procedures
stcox proc_b if proc_a==0, nohr nolog
************************************************
> On Oct 16, 2012, at 12:31 AM, Will Schairer wrote:
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> I have a dataset of procedures multiple follow-up events with an outcome of
> a complication. There are a few procedures, proc_A, proc_B, proc_C, proc_D,
> proc_E, which are all 0 -no- or 1 -yes-.
> 
> I'm trying to create an stcox model where the hazard ratios are in
> reference to one of the procedures. Normally it would be fine just to set
> "proc" = 1,2,3,4, or 5, and use the i.proc. However, in this data there can
> be multiple procedures occurring in each visit, so I can't set just one
> variable like stcox i.proc
> 
> So, I have:
> var           HR
> age
> gender
> proc_A     0.7
> proc_B     1.2
> proc_C     3.4
> proc_D     3.2
> proc_E     2.5
> 
> and I'd like to have:
> var         HR
> age
> gender
> proc_A     1.0
> proc_B     ?
> proc_C     ?
> proc_D     ?
> proc_E     ?
> 
> so that the ?'s are relative to proc_A = 1.0.
> 
> ok so my question is, can I use -stcox- age gender B C D E, offset(A) as a
> way to normalize the other procedures to A? I have not found a good
> detailed resource on offset, but my understanding is that it is an exposure
> adjustment, so in a sense I'd be adjusting for exposure to proc A with HR =
> 1.0. Or, is there another way to do this?
> 
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