The permitted transitions in the continuous-time multi-state model are
State 5 is absorbing. The absence of arrows from dementia states 2 and 4 back to nondementia states expresses irreversibility; stroke likewise remains in the history after entry to states 3 or 4.
Write for the transition probabilities generated by the constant intensity matrix. The panel-observed multi-state likelihood contributions are:
  • Patient 2 may have entered the stroke state either without or with unobserved dementia. The exactly timed stroke contributes
    With no information after admission, the later contribution is one.
  • For patient 3, sum over the two possible states immediately after the stroke, propagate to observed state 4 over the following years, and then require death directly from state 4:
The homogeneous Markov assumption can fail because mortality and disease incidence depend on age, calendar time, and duration since stroke or dementia; duration dependence would call for a Semi-Markov multi-state model. The common-intensity assumption can fail through patient heterogeneity in sex, genetics, vascular risk, treatment, and frailty. In addition, clinic attendance may be informative: patients with worsening cognition may attend sooner or may be too ill to attend, violating an observation process independent of the latent disease process.
After stroke, absence of a dementia effect on the death intensity is the restriction
Fit the unrestricted model and the nested model subject to this equality, then use a likelihood-ratio test. Under regularity conditions, twice the log-likelihood difference is asymptotically chi-squared with one degree of freedom.

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