Statistical models versus machine learning for competing risks: development and validation of prognostic models.

Journal: BMC medical research methodology
Published Date:

Abstract

BACKGROUND: In health research, several chronic diseases are susceptible to competing risks (CRs). Initially, statistical models (SM) were developed to estimate the cumulative incidence of an event in the presence of CRs. As recently there is a growing interest in applying machine learning (ML) for clinical prediction, these techniques have also been extended to model CRs but literature is limited. Here, our aim is to investigate the potential role of ML versus SM for CRs within non-complex data (small/medium sample size, low dimensional setting).

Authors

  • Georgios Kantidakis
    Mathematical Institute Leiden University, Niels Bohrweg 1, 2333 CA Leiden, Netherlands.
  • Hein Putter
    Department of Biomedical Data Sciences, Section Medical Statistics, Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), Albinusdreef 2, 2333 ZA Leiden, Netherlands.
  • Saskia Litière
    Department of Statistics, European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Headquarters, Ave E. Mounier 83/11, 1200, Brussels, Belgium.
  • Marta Fiocco
    Mathematical Institute Leiden University, Niels Bohrweg 1, 2333 CA Leiden, Netherlands.