St. Charles
Explaining Competing Risk Analyses to Nonstatisticians (303746)
*Cynthia S. Crowson, Mayo Clinic
Keywords: competing risks, communication, collaboration, time-to-event analyses
The objective of this presentation is to provide statisticians with a better understanding of the motivation for competing risk analyses and with the ability to clearly explain these methods to nonstatisticians. The presentation will cover the basics of why raw percentages and data summaries at last follow-up are not meaningful in the presence of differential follow-up. The Kaplan-Meier method, redistribute-to-the-right and cumulative incidence adjusted for the competing risk of death will also be explained with illustrative examples. As these concepts are often confusing to nonstatisticians, the ability to clearly communicate them to nonstatisticians is an important skill. Due to the focus on explaining these concepts to nonstatisticians, this presentation will also be applicable to those who have not had exposure to survival analyses. While these analyses are most commonly used in the medical industry, they have also been used in other industries, including manufacturing and customer service.