Composite endpoints: What were the odds of that?

Composite endpoints are frequently utilised in clinical studies. The creation of composite endpoints in their current form, a death carries the same weight as for example a stroke, repeat revascularisation or myocardial infarction. We hypothesise that the non-death terms of a composite score should be created such that the factor involved is weighted via odds ratios for its risk of association with death. We explore and demonstrate this using previously published odds ratios for these factors, and apply it to a hypothetical trial similar to Excel, to demonstrate the principle. The same principle could be applied to composite survival endpoints, when the factors are weighted via hazard ratios.