MULTIPLE STATISTICS FOR MULTIPLE EVENTS, WITH APPLICATION TO REPEATEDINFECTIONS IN THE GROWTH-FACTOR STUDIES

Clinical studies that involve the recording of two or more distinct an d well-defined events on each subject give rise to multiple event data . Treatment comparisons are usually reported in univariate analyses of time to first event or number of events observed. However, this appro ach may not uncover the 'full story' of the treatment effect; moreover , it may be inefficient because it does not make full use of the avail able data. There are a number of published statistical methods for ana lysing multiple event data. Using data from a real life example, this paper compares the results obtained using the 'older ad hoc' methods w ith those based on the more recent methods that utilize the multiplici ty of the data. (C) 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Stat. Med., Vol 16 , 941-949 (1997).