Evidence-appraisal glossary
Subdistribution Hazard
A quantity used in competing-risks analysis that connects directly to the cumulative probability of a specific event, keeping people who had a competing event in the at-risk pool rather than removing them. It underlies the Fine-Gray model.
Also called: Fine-Gray model, subdistribution hazard ratio.
Cause-specific hazards describe event rates but do not map cleanly onto the chance an event actually happens when several outcomes compete for the same patients. The subdistribution hazard was built to fill that gap: its regression form, the Fine-Gray model, produces subdistribution hazard ratios that move in step with cumulative incidence. This makes it the tool of choice when the clinical question is how likely a particular outcome is, not what its instantaneous rate is. Reading competing-risks results well means noticing which of the two hazards a paper reports.
This is a plain-language methodology definition for reading research. It is general education, not medical advice.