A computer program for survival comparisons to a standard population.

Abstract

PROPHAZ is a computer program created for the analysis of survival data using the general proportional hazards model. It was designed specifically for the situation in which the underlying hazard function may be estimated from the mortality experience of a large reference population, but may be used for other problems as well. Input for the program includes the variables of interest as well as the information necessary for estimating the hazard function (demographic and mortality data). Regression coefficients for the variables of interest are obtained iteratively using the Newton-Raphson method. Utilizing large sample asymptotic theory, x2 statistics are derived which may be used to test hypotheses of the form C beta = 0. Input format is completely flexible for the variables of interest as well as the mortality data.