The current duration approach to estimating time to pregnancy

TY - JOUR

T1 - The current duration approach to estimating time to pregnancy

AU - Keiding, Niels

AU - Hansen, Oluf Kristian Højbjerg

AU - Sørensen, Ditte Nørbo

AU - Slama, R

PY - 2012/6

Y1 - 2012/6

N2 - Time-to-pregnancy (TTP) is the duration from the time a couple starts trying to become pregnant until they succeed. It is considered one of the most direct methods to measure natural fecundity in humans. Statistical tools for designing and analysing time to pregnancy studies belong to survival analysis, but several features require special attention. Prospective designs are difficult to carry out and retrospective (pregnancy-based) designs, being widely used in this area, do not allow efficiently including couples remaining childless. A third possible design starts from a cross-sectional sample of couples currently trying to become pregnant, using current duration (backward recurrence time) as basis for the estimation of TTP. Regression analysis is then most conveniently carried out in the accelerated failure time model. This paper surveys some practical and technical-statistical issues in implementing this approach in a large telephone-based survey, the Epidemiological Observatory of Fecundity in France (Obseff).

AB - Time-to-pregnancy (TTP) is the duration from the time a couple starts trying to become pregnant until they succeed. It is considered one of the most direct methods to measure natural fecundity in humans. Statistical tools for designing and analysing time to pregnancy studies belong to survival analysis, but several features require special attention. Prospective designs are difficult to carry out and retrospective (pregnancy-based) designs, being widely used in this area, do not allow efficiently including couples remaining childless. A third possible design starts from a cross-sectional sample of couples currently trying to become pregnant, using current duration (backward recurrence time) as basis for the estimation of TTP. Regression analysis is then most conveniently carried out in the accelerated failure time model. This paper surveys some practical and technical-statistical issues in implementing this approach in a large telephone-based survey, the Epidemiological Observatory of Fecundity in France (Obseff).

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0303-6898

VL - 39

SP - 185

EP - 204

JO - Scandinavian Journal of Statistics

JF - Scandinavian Journal of Statistics

IS - 2

ER -