Adaptive Differential Privacy Cox-MLP Model Based on Federated Learning

In the data-driven healthcare sector, balancing privacy protection and model performance is critical. This paper enhances accuracy and reliability in survival analysis by integrating differential privacy, deep learning, and the Cox proportional hazards model within a federated learning framework. Traditionally, differential privacy’s noise injection often degrades model performance. To address this, we propose two adaptive privacy budget allocation strategies considering weight changes across neural network layers. The first, LS-ADP, utilizes layer sensitivity to assess the influence of individual layer weights on model performance and develops an adaptive differential privacy algorithm. The second, ROW-DP, comprehensively assesses weight variations and absolute values to propose a random one-layer weighted differential privacy algorithm. These algorithms provide differentiated privacy protection for various weights, mitigating privacy leakage while ensuring model performance. Experimental results on simulated and clinical datasets demonstrate improved predictive performance and robust privacy protection.