Covariate selection for the estimation of marginal hazard ratios in high-dimensional data

Abstract: Hazard ratios are frequently reported in time-to-event and epidemiological studies to assess treatment effects. In observational studies, the combination of propensity score weights with the Cox proportional hazards model facilitates the estimation of the marginal hazard ratio (MHR). The methods for estimating MHR are analogous to those employed for estimating common causal parameters, such as the average treatment effect. However, MHR estimation in the context of high-dimensional data remain unexplored. This paper seeks to address this gap through a simulation study that consider variable selection methods from causal inference combined with a recently proposed multiply robust approach for MHR estimation. Additionally, a case study utilizing stroke register data is conducted to demonstrate the application of these methods. The results from the simulation study indicate that the double selection covariate selection method is preferable to several other strategies when estimating MHR. Nevertheless, the estimation can be further improved by employing the multiply robust approach to the set of propensity score models obtained during the double selection process.