From Basic Survival Analytic Theory to a Non-Standard Application

Georg Zimmermann provides a mathematically rigorous treatment of basic survival analytic methods. His emphasis is also placed on various questions and problems, especially with regard to life expectancy calculations arising from a particular real-life dataset on patients with epilepsy. The author shows both the step-by-step analyses of that dataset and the theory the analyses are based on. He demonstrates that one may face serious and sometimes unexpected problems, even when conducting very basic analyses. Moreover, the reader learns that a practically relevant research question may look rather simple at first sight. Nevertheless, compared to standard textbooks, a more detailed account of the theory underlying life expectancy calculations is needed in order to provide a mathematically rigorous framework.

Georg Zimmermann is a PhD student at the University of Salzburg and research associate at Christian-Doppler-Klinik, Salzburg.