CHAPTER 23 Survival Regression 345

Finding h

To calculate the h value, do the following for each predictor:

1.

Subtract the average value from the patient’s value.

In this example, you subtract the average age, which is 51.18, from the patient’s

age, which is 55, giving a difference of +3.82.

2.

Multiply the difference by the regression coefficient and call the

product v.

In this example, you multiply 3.82 from Step 1 by the regression coefficient for

age, which is 0.377, giving a product of 1.44 for v.

3.

Calculate the v value for each predictor in the model.

4.

Add all the v values, and call the sum of the individual v values V.

This example has only one predictor variable, which is age, so V equals the v

value you calculate for age in Step 2, which is 1.44.

5.

Calculate eV.

This is the value of h. In this example, e1 44

. gives the value 4.221, which is the h

value for a 55-year-old patient.

6.

Raise each of the baseline survival values to the power of h to get the

survival values for the prognosis curve.

In this example, you have the following prognosis:

For year-zero survival 1 000

1 000

4 221

.

.

.

, or 100 percent

For two-year survival: 0 9979

0 9912

4 221

.

.

.

, or 99.12 percent

For seven-year survival 0 9820

0 9262

4 221

.

.

.

, or 92.62 percent

For nine-year survival 0 9525

0 8143

4 221

.

.

.

, or 81.43 percent

For ten-year survival 0 8310

0 4578

4 221

.

.

.

, or 45.78 percent

You then graph these calculated survival values to give a customized survival

curve for this particular patient. And that’s all there is to it!

Here’s a short version of the procedure:

1.

V = sum of [(patient value – average value) * coefficient] summed over all

the predictors

2.

h

eV

3.

Customized survival

baseline survival

h