An Additive Hazards Model for Clustered Recurrent Gap Times

In this article, clustered recurrent gap time is investigated. A marginal additive hazards model is proposed without specifying the association of the individuals within the same cluster. The relationship among the gap times for the same individual is also left unspecified. An estimating equation-based inference procedure is developed for the model parameters, and the asymptotic properties of the resulting estimators are established. In addition, a lack-of-fit test is presented to assess the adequacy of the model. The finite sample behavior of the proposed estimators is evaluated through simulation studies, and an application to a clinic study on chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) is illustrated.