Open Access
June 2011 The effect of winning an Oscar Award on survival: Correcting for healthy performer survivor bias with a rank preserving structural accelerated failure time model
Xu Han, Dylan S. Small, Dean P. Foster, Vishal Patel
Ann. Appl. Stat. 5(2A): 746-772 (June 2011). DOI: 10.1214/10-AOAS424

Abstract

We study the causal effect of winning an Oscar Award on an actor or actress’s survival. Does the increase in social rank from a performer winning an Oscar increase the performer’s life expectancy? Previous studies of this issue have suffered from healthy performer survivor bias, that is, candidates who are healthier will be able to act in more films and have more chance to win Oscar Awards. To correct this bias, we adapt Robins’ rank preserving structural accelerated failure time model and g-estimation method. We show in simulation studies that this approach corrects the bias contained in previous studies. We estimate that the effect of winning an Oscar Award on survival is 4.2 years, with a 95% confidence interval of [−0.4, 8.4] years. There is not strong evidence that winning an Oscar increases life expectancy.

Citation

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Xu Han. Dylan S. Small. Dean P. Foster. Vishal Patel. "The effect of winning an Oscar Award on survival: Correcting for healthy performer survivor bias with a rank preserving structural accelerated failure time model." Ann. Appl. Stat. 5 (2A) 746 - 772, June 2011. https://doi.org/10.1214/10-AOAS424

Information

Published: June 2011
First available in Project Euclid: 13 July 2011

zbMATH: 1223.62172
MathSciNet: MR2840174
Digital Object Identifier: 10.1214/10-AOAS424

Keywords: Causal inference , g-estimation. , Oscar Award , rank preserving structural accelerated failure time model , Survival analysis

Rights: Copyright © 2011 Institute of Mathematical Statistics

Vol.5 • No. 2A • June 2011
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