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14.5 COX REGRESSION: THE PROPORTIONAL HAZARDS MODEL 771<br />

Omnibus Tests of Model Coefficients<br />

Overall (score)<br />

–2 Log Chisquare<br />

Likelihood<br />

167.407 25.558<br />

df<br />

Sig.<br />

2 .000<br />

Variables in the Equation<br />

95.0% Cl for Exp(B)<br />

Drug<br />

age<br />

B<br />

2.139<br />

–.009<br />

SE<br />

.531<br />

.032<br />

Wald<br />

16.239<br />

.070<br />

df<br />

1<br />

1<br />

Sig.<br />

.000<br />

.792<br />

Exp(B)<br />

8.492<br />

.991<br />

Lower<br />

3.000<br />

.930<br />

Upper<br />

24.036<br />

1.057<br />

1.0<br />

0.8<br />

drug<br />

Opiate<br />

Other<br />

Cumulative Survival<br />

0.6<br />

0.4<br />

0.2<br />

0.0<br />

.00 10.00 20.00 30.00 40.00 50.00 60.00<br />

Weeks<br />

FIGURE 14.5.1<br />

Cox Regression survival analysis output from SPSS software for<br />

Example 14.5.1.<br />

calculating exp(b). Examining the variable drug, where opiates were used as the<br />

indicator variable in SPSS, the hazard of relapse is nearly 8.5 times more likely for<br />

opiates compared to other drugs, controlling for the covariate of age. Although we<br />

can calculate the hazard ratio for age in much the same way as for drug, it is<br />

often useful for quantitative covariates to consider calculating the function<br />

100(exp(b) 1), which provides an estimate of the percent change in the hazard<br />

when the covariate increases by one unit. In the present example for age, this leads to

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