Nonpararmetric estimation for interval censored competing risk data

Abstract

A competing risk analysis has been applied when subjects experience more than one type of end points. Geskus (2011) showed three types of estimators of CIF are equivalent under left truncated and right censored data. We extend his approach to an interval censored competing risk data by using a modified risk set and evaluate their performance under several sample sizes. These estimators show very similar results. We also suggest a test statistic combining Sun's test for interval censored data and Gray's test for right censored data. The test sizes and powers are compared under several cases. As a real data application, the suggested method is applied a data where the feasibility of the vaccine to HIV was assessed in the injecting drug uses.