Event History Analysis with R

Chapter 1

Event History and Survival Data

1.1 Introduction

What characterizes event history and survival data the most is its dynamic nature. Individuals are followed over time, and during that course, the timings of events of interest are noted. Naturally, things may happen that makes it necessary to interrupt an individual follow-up, such as the individual suddenly disappearing for some reason. With classical statistical tools, such as linear regression, these observations are difficult or impossible to handle in the analysis. The methods discussed in this book aim among other things, at solving such problems.

In this introductory chapter, the use of the special techniques that constitute survival and event history analysis are motivated. The ...