Model checking for additive hazards model with multivariate survival data

Multivariate failure time data often arise in biomedical studies due to natural or artificial clustering. With appropriate adjustment for the underlying correlation, the marginal additive hazards model characterizes the hazard difference via a linear link function between the hazard and covariates. We propose a class of graphical and numerical methods to assess the overall fitting adequacy of the marginal additive hazards model. The test statistics are based on the supremum of the stochastic processes derived from the cumulative sum of the martingale-based residuals over time and/or covariates. The distribution of the stochastic process can be approximated through a simulation technique. The proposed tests examine how unusual the observed stochastic process is, compared to a large number of realizations from the approximated process. This class of tests is very general and suitable for various purposes of model fitting evaluation. Simulation studies are conducted to examine the finite sample performance, and the model-checking methods are illustrated with data from an otitis media study. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.