A comparative study of tests for paired lifetime data

Authors: Wang, Zhu; Ng, Hon

Source: Lifetime Data Analysis, Volume 12, Number 4, December 2006 , pp. 505-522(18)

Publisher: Springer

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Abstract:

In this paper, we investigate different procedures for testing the equality of two mean survival times in paired lifetime studies. We consider Owen's M-test and Q-test, a likelihood ratio test, the paired t-test, the Wilcoxon signed rank test and a permutation test based on log-transformed survival times in the comparative study. We also consider the paired t-test, the Wilcoxon signed rank test and a permutation test based on original survival times for the sake of comparison. The size and power characteristics of these tests are studied by means of Monte Carlo simulations under a frailty Weibull model. For less skewed marginal distributions, the Wilcoxon signed rank test based on original survival times is found to be desirable. Otherwise, the M-test and the likelihood ratio test are the best choices in terms of power. In general, one can choose a test procedure based on information about the correlation between the two survival times and the skewness of the marginal survival distributions.

Keywords: Power; Size; Bivariate distribution; Logistic distribution; Weibull distribution; Monte Carlo simulations; Wilcoxon signed rank statistic

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10985-006-9026-9

Affiliations: 1: Email: ngh@mail.smu.edu

Publication date: 2006-12-01