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Estimating and comparing time-dependent areas under receiver operating characteristic curves for censored event times with competing risks
Blanche P, Dartigues JF, Jacqmin-Gadda H.. Statistics in medicine, 2013-09-12
Topic: Risk, prevention and care in population studies
The area under the time-dependent ROC curve (AUC) may be used to quantify the ability of a marker to predict the onset of a clinical outcome in the future. For survival analysis with competing risks, two alternative definitions of the specificity may be proposed depending of the way to deal with subjects who undergo the competing events. In this work, we propose nonparametric inverse probability of censoring weighting estimators of the AUC corresponding to these two definitions, and we study their asymptotic properties. We derive confidence intervals and test statistics for the equality of the AUCs obtained with two markers measured on the same subjects. A simulation study is performed to investigate the finite sample behaviour of the test and the confidence intervals. The method is applied to the French cohort PAQUID to compare the abilities of two psychometric tests to predict dementia onset in the elderly accounting for death without dementia competing risk. The 'timeROC' R package is provided to make the methodology easily usable.
Key findings
- In this work, we propose nonparametric inverse probability of censoring weighting estimators of the AUC corresponding to these two definitions, and we study their asymptotic properties.
- We derive confidence intervals and test statistics for the equality of the AUCs obtained with two markers measured on the same subjects.
- A simulation study is performed to investigate the finite sample behaviour of the test and the confidence intervals.
- The method is applied to the French cohort PAQUID to compare the abilities of two psychometric tests to predict dementia onset in the elderly accounting for death without dementia competing risk.
- The 'timeROC' R package is provided to make the methodology easily usable.
Why it matters
This paper describes a statistical method for comparing how well markers predict the onset of an outcome such as dementia when death is a competing risk. It is a methods paper and provides no evidence about treating, curing or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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Study details
- Evidence strengthModerate
How this study scored 54/100
Published in a peer-reviewed journal. Scored zero for study design, sample size, effect reported, studied in people and randomised / blinded because the record does not state it.
| Component | Points | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Journal tier | 7 / 10 | Tier 3 — peer-reviewed journal (Statistics in medicine) |
| Journal's citation record | 3 / 4 | Statistics in Medicine: journal h-index 309 (OpenAlex, 2026-10-29) |
| Study design | 0 / 12 | No study design recorded — scores zero, not guessed (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Strength of evidence | 3 / 5 | Rated “moderate” in our summary |
| Peer-review validation | 10 / 10 | Peer-reviewed. Published as an article in a named peer-reviewed journal. |
| How recent | 1 / 5 | 2013 — within 20 year(s) of the newest study here |
| Sample size | 0 / 4 | Participant count not stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Effect reported | 0 / 3 | No effect size reported — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Studied in people | 0 / 3 | Not stated whether this was studied in people — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Randomised / blinded | 0 / 2 | No randomisation or blinding stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Times cited | 7 / 7 | Cited 1,862 times (OpenAlex, 2026-10-10) |
| Citations per year | 5 / 5 | 124.1 citations a year over 15 year(s) since 2013 |
| Impact for its field and year | 4 / 6 | Cited 18.7× the average for papers of its field and year (OpenAlex FWCI) |
| Cited by studies here | 2 / 6 | Cited by 6 other studies in this library |
| Still being cited | 4 / 4 | Cited 764 times in 2024–2026 (2026 still in progress; OpenAlex) |
| Senior author's track record | 3 / 4 | Last-listed author Hélène Jacqmin‐Gadda: h-index 50 (OpenAlex, whole career) |
| Institution's track record | 2 / 3 | Inserm: institution h-index 1,988 (OpenAlex) |
| Multi-centre collaboration | 1 / 3 | OpenAlex lists 2 institution(s) in 1 country |
| Indexed in PubMed | 2 / 2 | Indexed in PubMed (PMID 24027076) |
| Free to read | 0 / 2 | Behind a paywall — scores zero |
| Total | 54 / 100 | — |
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Read the original
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Cite this study APA, Vancouver, BibTeX · download .bib or .ris
Built from the record alzhub holds for this paper, not looked up. Volume, issue and page numbers are not held in the record. Check the citation against the original before you use it.
APA 7th
Blanche, P., Dartigues, J. F., & Jacqmin-Gadda, H. (2013). Estimating and comparing time-dependent areas under receiver operating characteristic curves for censored event times with competing risks. Statistics in medicine. https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.5958
Vancouver
Blanche P, Dartigues JF, Jacqmin-Gadda H. Estimating and comparing time-dependent areas under receiver operating characteristic curves for censored event times with competing risks. Statistics in medicine. 2013. doi:10.1002/sim.5958. PMID: 24027076.
BibTeX
@article{blanche2013-24027076,
author = {Blanche, P. and Dartigues, J. F. and Jacqmin-Gadda, H.},
title = {{Estimating and comparing time-dependent areas under receiver operating characteristic curves for censored event times with competing risks}},
journal = {Statistics in medicine},
year = {2013},
doi = {10.1002/sim.5958},
pmid = {24027076},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.5958}
}
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