**Background:** Chronic hepatitis C is a severe and increasing public health issue. Although nowadays most patients can be cured, the infection is often undetected until symptoms of permanent liver damage become apparent, putting patients at a …
**Context:** This work is motivated by a study in Type II diabetes patients and their progression to diabetic retinopathy. Specifically, physicians are interested in identifying risk factors, longitudinal and baseline, for progression. An important …
Our work is motivated by examples from two large cohort studies, the Generation R Study and the Rotterdam Study, in which the analysis models of interest involved non-linear effects, interaction terms or had a longitudinal outcome. As is the case for …