An age dependent stochastic model of periodic screening: Basic properties (Q790065)

The model of evolution of some closed population is considered. Each individual can sojourn in one of three states: 1 - a disease free state, 2 - a preclinical disease state, 3 - a clinical disease state. The transitions 1 \(\to\) 2 and 2 \(\to\) 3 are only permitted. The state 3 is absorbing. The population is under surveillance examination at epochs \(t_ 1,t_ 2,...,t_ n\). The problem considered is to derive the conditional distribution of the age of individuals and sojourn times given the certain disease natural history of the individuals.