Consider a set of n subjects such that the counting process for the ith subject represents the number of observed events that are experienced over time t. The sample paths of the process
are step functions with jumps of size 1, with
. Let
denote the vector of unknown regression coefficients. The multiplicative hazards function
for
is given by
where
See Fleming and Harrington (1991) and Andersen et al. (1992). The Cox model is a special case of this multiplicative hazards model, where until the first event or censoring, and
thereafter.
The partial likelihood for n independent triplets
, has the form
where is the weight for subject i,
if
, and
otherwise.
A CLUSTER statement is necessary in order to appropriately estimate variances from multiplicative hazards models. If your design has a primary sampling unit (PSU), then use the PSU identification in the CLUSTER statement. Otherwise, use the subject identification in the CLUSTER statement.