Order Restricted Inference for Adaptive Progressively Censored Competing Risks Data

Abstract: Under adaptive progressive Type-II censoring schemes, order restricted inference based on competing risks data is discussed in this article. The latent failure lifetimes for the competing causes are assumed to follow Weibull distributions, with an order restriction on the scale parameters of the distributions. The practical implication of this order restriction is that one of the risk factors is dominant, as often observed in competing risks scenarios. In this setting, likelihood estimation for the model parameters, along with bootstrap based techniques for constructing asymptotic confidence intervals are presented. Bayesian inferential methods for obtaining point estimates and credible intervals for the model parameters are also discussed. Through a detailed Monte Carlo simulation study, the performance of order restricted inferential methods are assessed. In addition, the results are also compared with the case when no order restriction is imposed on the estimation approach. The simulation study shows that order restricted inference is more efficient between the two, when this additional information is taken into consideration. A numerical example is provided for illustrative purpose.