Simulate Participant Accrual Times

Usage

sim_accrual(n, accrual_periods, accrual_props)

Arguments

n: Number of participants
accrual_periods: Vector of right endpoints defining the time periods of accrual, e.g., c(6,8) defines 0<=x<6, 6<=x<8.
accrual_props: Vector indicating the proportion of participants that are expected to be enrolled during each of the defined accrual periods. Should sum to 1, otherwise these proportions will be normalized.

Value

Vector of accrual times corresponding to when each participant enters the study

Details

Simulate the accrual times for each participant, where accrual_periods defines the right time points for each accrual period (with the last element corresponding to the end of accrual), and accrual_props defines the proportion of study participants who are enrolled during each of these periods. The simulated accrual times for participants within a given accrual period are assumed to be uniformly distributed.

Examples

at <- sim_accrual(n = 100000, accrual_periods = c(6, 8), accrual_props = c(.5, .5))
hist(at, breaks = 100, main = "Histogram of Enrollment Times", xlab = "Enrollment Time")