Survival Analysis: A Self-Learning Text (Statistics in the Health Sciences)

Rating:
Summary: It's OK, but ...
Review: I'm a graduate student in public health at Emory University and have had the opportunity to actually take the course in Epidemiologic Modeling with Dr. Kleinbaum. This book, as well as his self-learning text for logistic regression, are fabulous. Both books provide a good background to the methods needed to use each analytical technique. Survival Analysis: A Self-Learning Text, in particular, flows very well with good examples, diagrams, and explanations for the student who wishes to learn this technique. It also serves a great reference for those who use this analytical method.

Rating:
Summary: Survival Analysis and you....
Review: I'm a graduate student in public health at Emory University and have had the opportunity to actually take the course in Epidemiologic Modeling with Dr. Kleinbaum. This book, as well as his self-learning text for logistic regression, are fabulous. Both books provide a good background to the methods needed to use each analytical technique. Survival Analysis: A Self-Learning Text, in particular, flows very well with good examples, diagrams, and explanations for the student who wishes to learn this technique. It also serves a great reference for those who use this analytical method.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Introduction to Survival Analysis
Review: Kleinbaum's Survival Analysis: A Self-Learning Text is an excellent nontechnical introduction to survival analysis. Survival analysis are statistical techniques that addresses the problem of how much time it takes for an event to occur. The techniques is widely used in medical research, and my interest in it comes from wanting to explore how long it will take for a person to refinance a loan. Kleinbaum explores the topic in a straightforward, and easy-to-follow manner. The topics are illustrated through numerous figures, diagrams, and analysis of real data sets. Kleinbaum uses a minimial amount of mathematics and carefully leads the reader through any math that is used. The book concentrates on the Cox Proportional Hazard model which is the most widely used technique in survival analysis. Given the introductory nature of the book one will not find materials covering other models. Someone with some mathematical knowledge, one semester of calculus, and a semester of statistics and a semester of undergraduate econometrics would get the most out of this book. If you are looking for an introduction to survival analysis this is a great place to start. I feel I have a strong foundation to start using survival analysis at my job and continue with a more technical exploration.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Introduction to Survival Analysis
Review: Kleinbaum's Survival Analysis: A Self-Learning Text is an excellent nontechnical introduction to survival analysis. Survival analysis are statistical techniques that addresses the problem of how much time it takes for an event to occur. The techniques is widely used in medical research, and my interest in it comes from wanting to explore how long it will take for a person to refinance a loan. Kleinbaum explores the topic in a straightforward, and easy-to-follow manner. The topics are illustrated through numerous figures, diagrams, and analysis of real data sets. Kleinbaum uses a minimial amount of mathematics and carefully leads the reader through any math that is used. The book concentrates on the Cox Proportional Hazard model which is the most widely used technique in survival analysis. Given the introductory nature of the book one will not find materials covering other models. Someone with some mathematical knowledge, one semester of calculus, and a semester of statistics and a semester of undergraduate econometrics would get the most out of this book. If you are looking for an introduction to survival analysis this is a great place to start. I feel I have a strong foundation to start using survival analysis at my job and continue with a more technical exploration.

Rating:
Summary: It's OK, but ...
Review: Unlike other reviewers, I did not find this book very helpful, especially considering the price I paid. The book is essentially a PowerPoint course presentation published with the notes pages as text. Unfortunately, the book is laid out so that the reader must make the connection between the text and the slide itself (they're stacked side-by-side with no separation). Often, the text discusses the material as though the instructor had a pointer in hand to make the connection -- without those visual clues the argument is hard to follow. On the other hand, if you know nothing about survival analysis and only want to run computer programs (specifically SPIDA) and read the output, I guess this book isn't bad. I'll keep looking for a good textbook.