Survival analysis. A self-learning text. (Q5921635)

[For the review of the first edition from 1996 see Zbl 0856.62097.] This text is, as the subtitle suggests, an elementary introduction to survival analysis. It is primarily intended for self-study, but it has also proven useful as a basic text in a standard classroom course, especially for students with not so solid background in statistics and mathematics. Each chapter starts with an Introduction, an Abbreviated outline, and Objectives, and ends with self tests, exercises and a detailed outline. Solutions to tests and exercises are also provided. Mathematical formulas are kept to a minimum, and when they show up, they are separated from the main text. Each page is divided into two columns, where one contains technical details and concise information, while the other provides the acccompanying text. The presentation of the theory itself follows a rather conventional path for courses in survival analysis. After defining basic concepts like censoring, event, hazard and survival function, the Kaplan-Meier estimator, the log-rank test, and Cox regression are introduced. Then some extensions to the basic proportional hazards model are given, especially stratification and time-dependent covariates. One chapter is devoted to the evaluation of the proportional hazards assumption. The theory is accompanied by practical data analysis using SAS, Stata, or SPSS. New to the second edition are chapters on Parametric survival models, Recurrent event survival analysis, and Competing risks survival analysis.