Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 32 6 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Use one row per consecutive at-risk episode, retaining a patient identifier for dependence and an episode number for event order. In calendar time, the intervals are ; status is one if the row ends in a headache and zero if it ends in censoring. Patient 001 contributes
The fifth episode is censored, not a fifth observed headache. All rows retain . This start-stop recurrent-event data layout corresponds to the counting-process intensity in survival analysiswhere indicates that the patient is currently observed and eligible for a headache. Fit the regression coefficient by Cox partial likelihood using the resulting risk sets, and estimate the baseline cumulative hazard nonparametrically, for example by the Breslow estimator. Patient rows are portions of one history, not new independent patients.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 35 6 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
The history contains the information observed strictly before : baseline characteristics, previous events and censoring, and therefore which individuals are currently eligible and under observation. Formally it is the pre- information in the relevant filtration. The at-risk process is 1 if individual is observed and event-free immediately before , and 0 otherwise. Let and write for the cumulative hazard increment.
The counting-process intensity in survival analysis givesThe common conditional hazard function is assumed to remain applicable after conditioning on the observed history, as under suitable independent censoring. Summing gives the conditional mean of the total event increment:On times with , invert this relation to estimate the hazard increment:The last sum is for untied events. This is the Nelson–Aalen estimator; for ties replace 1 by the number of events at that time. No increment can be estimated once the risk set is empty.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 207 7 b i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
In the counting-process intensity in survival analysis, the counting process jumps once if an observed event occurs; the at-risk process is one immediately before only while individual is still observed and event-free. Conditional on that information, the chance of an event in a short interval is for an at-risk individual and zero otherwise. This is the meaning ofThe history is the filtration generated by the observed event and censoring histories, entry information, and available covariates strictly before . In particular, it determines the current risk set but does not reveal future event times. The right-hand side is the infinitesimal compensator of a counting process; the equality is interpreted as an intensity statement to first order in .