Regression analysis of interval-censored failure time data under semiparametric transformation models with missing covariates

Abstract This paper discusses regression analysis of interval-censored failure time data arising from semiparametric transformation models in the presence of covariates that are missing at random (MAR). We define a specific formulation of the MAR mechanism tailored to the interval censoring, where the timing of observation adds complexity to handling missing covariates. To overcome the limitations and computational challenges present in the existing methods, we propose a multiple imputation procedure that can be easily implemented with the use of the standard software. The proposed method makes use of two predictive scores for each individual and the distance defined by these scores. Furthermore, it utilizes partial information from incomplete observations and thus yields more efficient estimators than the complete-case analysis and the inverse probability weighting approach. An extensive simulation study is conducted to assess the performance of the proposed method and indicates that it performs well in practical situations. Finally we apply the proposed approach to an Alzheimer’s Disease study that motivated this work.