Survival Analysis

Excerpt

Survival analysis is widely used in evidence-based medicine to examine the time-to-event series. Often used for survival/death events, time-to-event series can illustrate time to any dichotomous event. Examples: the number of days before treatment allows an individual to go into remission; or the severity grade of disease and the hours in the hospital before being released. Using this method, one can compare patients and/or groups of patients. Relationships between more than one group can use Kaplan-Meier estimations and log-rank tests, which are both nonparametric. Researchers interested in quantifying the effect of the comparison(s) can use Cox proportional hazard models. Survival analysis techniques were first used for medical studies but have expanded to a variety of other disciplines including financial services and engineering.