[Solved]

dexter

I have a data set with 7 variables and I'm developing a basic Cox proportional hazard model (this is an assignment for a masters course in survival analysis). We've been given a pretty neat outline of what is required for the report, but I just wanted some help with "perform preliminary inspection of data using tables or graphs".

What exactly should this entail? My undergraduate was not in statistics, so this is my first time writing up a report. So far I've sketched a couple of Kaplan-Meier survival estimate graphs, I wondered what else I should include. Things like mean age of the subject, mean time of survival?

Some of the variables have 2-4 levels.

Specifically, my question is as a statistician (not necessarily in survival analysis) what sort of things should I include in my preliminary inspection of data? Any resources you could recommend within this area would be pretty good too.

Thanks in advance, guys!

Lilnoobs

I don't mean to sound rude, but why can't you ask the professor these questions?

dexter

That's a fair question. Admittedly I have left this a little bit late - I only have a few days until it's due. I have actually spoken with my professor, but I found it difficult to follow her. It was in person so I don't have an email which I can look back on either.

MrTLicious

To me, that sounds like summary statistics (that said, I'm not in survival analysis so you could be in a whole different ballpark).

What you include will be dependent on what is important later, but you'll want at a minimum means and standard deviations of all your variables. It sounds like some of your variables are categorical so you may also want to include that info by category if it's relevant to the rest of your analysis.

dexter

Cool, thanks a lot MrT. I've completed the paper but this is helpful. I have a lot to learn!