Survival analysis

An introduction to concepts, methods & software

Taught by

Hannah Bower-Kähäri, PhD

Director of Applied Biostatistics

Several years of experience with register-based epidemiological data, leading the applied team.

Research register-based epidemiology · flexible parametric survival · loss in life expectancy · teaching

PhD in Medical Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, 2018

Start with a free lesson →

What you will be able to do

• Describe risk-time, timescales and censoring, and say what each implies for an analysis
• Estimate and compare survival with Kaplan-Meier, and read a hazard and a cumulative hazard
• Fit parametric survival models and Cox regression, and choose between them
• Test the proportional-hazards assumption and model non-proportional hazards

Curriculum

18 steps: 10 lessons, 4 practicals and 4 quizzes.

Concepts and data

• 01ReadBasic concepts, risk-time and timescalesRead free →10 min
• 02ReadCensoring — what it is and what it costs you8 min
• 03ReadDeclaring survival data: stset and Surv()12 min
• 04PracticalPractical 1 · describing survival data45 min
• 05QuizTime at risk, and what you declared it to be6 min

Describing survival

• 06OperateRates, survival and the Kaplan-Meier estimator12 min
• 07ReadComparing survival between groups10 min
• 08ReadHazard and cumulative hazard12 min
• 09PracticalPractical 2 · Kaplan-Meier and the log-rank test45 min
• 10QuizWhat the curve says, and what the test does not6 min

Models

• 11ReadParametric survival models14 min
• 12ReadCox's proportional hazards model16 min
• 13PracticalPractical 3 · fitting and interpreting a Cox model1.0 h
• 14QuizTwo models, and the price of each6 min

Assumptions

• 15ReadThe proportional-hazards assumption, and when it fails12 min
• 16ReadModelling non-proportional hazards12 min
• 17PracticalPractical 4 · testing and relaxing proportionality45 min
• 18QuizWhat proportionality claims, and what it does not6 min