Score test of homogeneity for survival data.

If follow-up is made for subjects which are grouped into units, such as familial or spatial units then it may be interesting to test whether the groups are homogeneous (or independent for given explanatory variables). The effect of the groups is modelled as random and we consider a frailty proportional hazards model which allows to adjust for explanatory variables. We derive the score test of homogeneity from the marginal partial likelihood and it turns out to be the sum of a pairwise correlation term of martingale residuals and an overdispersion term. In the particular case where the sizes of the groups are equal to one, this statistic can be used for testing overdispersion. The asymptotic variance of this statistic is derived using counting process arguments. An extension to the case of several strata is given. The resulting test is computationally simple; its use is illustrated using both stimulated and real data. In addition a decomposition of the score statistic is proposed as a sum of a pairwise correlation term and an overdispersion term. The pairwise correlation term can be used for constructing a statistic more robust to departure from the proportional hazard model, and the overdispersion term for constructing a test of fit of the proportional hazard model.