Create survival curves

Simple wrapper for survival::survfit() except the environment is also included in the returned object.

Use this function with all other functions in this package to ensure all elements are calculable.

Usage

survfit2(formula, ...)

Arguments

formula

a formula object, which must have a Surv object as the response on the left of the ~ operator and, if desired, terms separated by + operators on the right. One of the terms may be a strata object. For a single survival curve the right hand side should be ~ 1.

...

Arguments passed on to survival::survfit.formula

data

a data frame in which to interpret the variables named in the formula, subset and weights arguments.

weights

The weights must be nonnegative and it is strongly recommended that they be strictly positive, since zero weights are ambiguous, compared to use of the subset argument.

subset

expression saying that only a subset of the rows of the data should be used in the fit.

na.action

a missing-data filter function, applied to the model frame, after any subset argument has been used. Default is options()$na.action.

stype

the method to be used estimation of the survival curve: 1 = direct, 2 = exp(cumulative hazard).

ctype

the method to be used for estimation of the cumulative hazard: 1 = Nelson-Aalen formula, 2 = Fleming-Harrington correction for tied events.

id

identifies individual subjects, when a given person can have multiple lines of data.

cluster

used to group observations for the infinitesimal jackknife variance estimate, defaults to the value of id.

robust

logical, should the function compute a robust variance. For multi-state survival curves this is true by default. For single state data see details, below.

istate

for multi-state models, identifies the initial state of each subject or observation

timefix

process times through the aeqSurv function to eliminate potential roundoff issues.

etype

a variable giving the type of event. This has been superseded by multi-state Surv objects and is deprecated; see example below.

error

this argument is no longer used

Value

survfit2 object

survfit2() vs survfit()

Both functions have identical inputs, so why do we need survfit2()?

The only difference between survfit2() and survival::survfit() is that the former tracks the environment from which the call to the function was made.

The definition of survfit2() is unremarkably simple:

survfit2 <- function(formula, ...) {
  # construct survfit object
  survfit <- survival::survfit(formula, ...)

  # add the environment
  survfit$.Environment = <calling environment>

  # add class and return
  class(survfit) <- c("survfit2", "survfit")
  survfit
}

The environment is needed to ensure the survfit call can be accurately reconstructed or parsed at any point post estimation. The call is parsed when p-values are reported and when labels are created. For example, the raw variable names appear in the output of a stratified survfit() result, e.g. "sex=Female". When using survfit2(), the originating data frame and formula may be parsed and the raw variable names removed.

Most functions in the package work with both survfit2() and survfit(); however, the output will be styled in a preferable format with survfit2().

See also

survival::survfit.formula()

Examples

# With `survfit()`
fit <- survfit(Surv(time, status) ~ sex, data = df_lung)
fit
#> Call: survfit(formula = Surv(time, status) ~ sex, data = df_lung)
#> 
#>              n events median 0.95LCL 0.95UCL
#> sex=Male   138    112   8.87    6.97    10.2
#> sex=Female  90     53  14.00   11.43    18.1

# With `survfit2()`
fit2 <- survfit2(Surv(time, status) ~ sex, data = df_lung)
fit2
#> Call: survfit(formula = Surv(time, status) ~ sex, data = df_lung)
#> 
#>              n events median 0.95LCL 0.95UCL
#> sex=Male   138    112   8.87    6.97    10.2
#> sex=Female  90     53  14.00   11.43    18.1

# Consistent behavior with other functions
summary(fit, times = c(10, 20))
#> Call: survfit(formula = Surv(time, status) ~ sex, data = df_lung)
#> 
#>                 sex=Male 
#>  time n.risk n.event survival std.err lower 95% CI upper 95% CI
#>    10     44      76    0.423  0.0440        0.344        0.518
#>    20     13      27    0.145  0.0353        0.090        0.234
#> 
#>                 sex=Female 
#>  time n.risk n.event survival std.err lower 95% CI upper 95% CI
#>    10     43      27    0.674  0.0523        0.579        0.785
#>    20     11      18    0.343  0.0634        0.239        0.493
#> 

summary(fit2, times = c(10, 20))
#> Call: survfit(formula = Surv(time, status) ~ sex, data = df_lung)
#> 
#>                 sex=Male 
#>  time n.risk n.event survival std.err lower 95% CI upper 95% CI
#>    10     44      76    0.423  0.0440        0.344        0.518
#>    20     13      27    0.145  0.0353        0.090        0.234
#> 
#>                 sex=Female 
#>  time n.risk n.event survival std.err lower 95% CI upper 95% CI
#>    10     43      27    0.674  0.0523        0.579        0.785
#>    20     11      18    0.343  0.0634        0.239        0.493
#>