The continuous predictor X is discretized into a categorical covariate X ? with low range (X < Xstep onek), median range (X1k < X < Xdosk), and high range (X > X2k) according to each pair of candidate cut-points.
Then the categorical covariate X ? (source level ‘s the average assortment) is equipped into the a beneficial Cox model additionally the concomitant Akaike Pointers Standard (AIC) worthy of is calculated. The two regarding reduce-points that minimizes AIC opinions is described as optimum slashed-points. Also, going for cut-affairs because of the Bayesian recommendations criterion (BIC) provides the exact same performance due to the fact AIC (More file step one: Tables S1, S2 and you will S3).
Execution inside R
The optimal equal-HR method was implemented in the language R (version 3.3.3). The freely available R package ‘survival’ was used to fit Cox models with P-splines. The R package ‘pec’ was employed for computing the Integrated Brier Score (IBS). The R package ‘maxstat’ was used to implement the minimum p-value method with log-rank statistics. And an R package named ‘CutpointsOEHR’ was developed for the optimal equal-HR method. This package could be installed in R by coding devtools::install_github(“yimi-chen/CutpointsOEHR”). All tests were two-sided and considered statistically significant at P < 0.05.
The brand new simulator data
An excellent Monte Carlo simulation study was applied to evaluate the fresh abilities of the maximum equal-Hour method or other discretization strategies including the median separated (Median), the https://www.datingranking.net/tr/dating-for-seniors-inceleme/ upper minimizing quartiles values (Q1Q3), and minimum log-review sample p-worth method (minP). To investigate the new results ones actions, brand new predictive abilities off Cox designs installing with various discretized details was analyzed.
Style of the new simulator data
U(0, 1), ? are the dimensions factor regarding Weibull distribution, v try the design parameter out of Weibull distribution, x is actually an ongoing covariate out-of a simple typical shipments, and you may s(x) try the latest offered purpose of focus. In order to replicate U-designed relationships anywhere between x and you may journal(?), the form of s(x) was set to become
where parameters k1, k2 and a were used to control the symmetric and asymmetric U-shaped relationships. When -k1 was equal to k2, the relationship was almost symmetric. For each subject, censoring time C was simulated by the uniform distribution with [0, r]. The final observed survival time was T = min(T0, C), and d was a censoring indicator of whether the event happened or not in the observed time T (d = 1 if T0 ? C, else d = 0). The parameter r was used to control the censoring proportion Pc.
One hundred independent datasets were simulated with n = 500 subjects per dataset for various combinations of parameters k1, k2, a, v and Pc. Moreover, the simulation results of different sample sizes were shown in the supplementary file, Additional file 1: Figures S1 and S2. The values of (k1, k2, a) were set to be (? 2, 2, 0), (? 8/3, 8/5, ? 1/2), (? 8/5, 8/3, 1/2), (? 4, 4/3, ? 1), and (? 4/3, 4, 1), which were intuitively presented in Fig. 2. Large absolute values of a meant that the U-shaped relationship was more asymmetric than that with small absolute values of a. Peak asymmetry factor of the above (k1, k2, a) values were 1, 5/3, 3/5, 3, 1/3, respectively. The survival times were Weibull distributed with the decreasing (v = 1/2), constant (v = 1) and increasing (v = 5) hazard rates. The scale parameter of Weibull distribution was set to be 1. The censoring proportion Pc was set to be 0, 20 and 50%. For each scenario, the median method, the Q1Q3 method, the minP method and the optimal equal-HR method were performed to find the optimal cut-points.