Course Statistical analysis of time to event data (Survival analysis)

The course P130/13 Statistical analysis of time-to-event data (Survival analysis) is being offered by the Graduate School of Health, Aarhus University, 2026.

Criteria for participation: 
Applicants must hold a university degree in medicine, dentistry, or nursing, or a Master’s degree in another relevant field. Postgraduate research fellows, including PhD students and medical research-year students, are also eligible.

Requirements for participation:
Participants must have completed Basic Biostatistics Parts 1 and 2, or equivalent courses. The course is intended for users of the statistical software packages Stata or R.

Aim: 
The aim of the course is to provide an introduction to the design, analysis, and interpretation of time-to-event data.

Learning outcomes: 

Upon completion of the course, participants will be able to:

• Document and handle data needed for a statistical analysis of time-to-event data
• Select an appropriate statistical model for a given research question and assess model assumptions
• Conduct statistical analyses using the selected model
• Present and interpret statistical results in relation to the underlying scientific question
• Perform basic sample size calculations for planning comparative studies

Workload:
The full workload of the course is expected to be 60 hours

Content: 
The course covers fundamental aspects of time-to-event data, including censoring, truncation, choice of time scale, and competing risks. Topics include estimation of survival and cumulative risk curves; simple and stratified comparisons of survival and risk curves; and sample size calculations for clinical follow-up studies with censored data. Methods such as Cox regression and pseudo-observation regression for analyzing data with explanatory variables will be introduced. The statistical software packages Stata and R will be used throughout the course.

Teaching Format:
Lectures 9.15-12.00 and group exercises 12.30-15.30.

Instructors: 
Erik Thorlund Parner and TBA.

Venue: 
Aarhus University, Aarhus (other)

Participation in the course is without cost for:

• PhD students, Health Research Year students from Aarhus University
• PhD students enrolled at partner universities of the Nordoc collaboration
• PhD students from other institutions in the open market agreement for PhD courses

Course dates:

• 03 June 2026 09:15 - 15:30
• 04 June 2026 09:15 - 15:30
• 11 June 2026 09:15 - 15:30
• 12 June 2026 09:15 - 15:30