Applied analysis of recurrent events: a practical overview

An overview and comparison of different easily applicable statistical techniques to analyse recurrent event data such as Cox regression for recurrent events, generalised estimating equations (GEE), and random coefficient analysis is given.

Abstract

STUDY OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this paper is to give an overview and comparison of different easily applicable statistical techniques to analyse recurrent event data. SETTING: These techniques include naive techniques and longitudinal techniques such as Cox regression for recurrent events, generalised estimating equations (GEE), and random coefficient analysis. The different techniques are illustrated with a dataset from a randomised controlled trial regarding the treatment of lateral epicondylitis. MAIN RESULTS: The use of different statistical techniques leads to different results and different conclusions regarding the effectiveness of the different intervention strategies. CONCLUSIONS: If you are interested in a particular short term or long term result, simple naive techniques are appropriate. However, if the development of a particular outcome is of interest, statistical techniques that consider the recurrent events and additionally corrects for the dependency of the observations are necessary.