Survival Analysis Guide

A skill for conducting time-to-event analyses including Kaplan-Meier estimation, log-rank tests, and Cox proportional hazards regression. Covers censoring concepts, assumption checking, and reporting standards for clinical and social science research.

Core Concepts

What Is Survival Analysis?

Survival analysis studies the time until an event of interest occurs. Despite the name, the "event" need not be death -- it can be any well-defined transition:

Medical:      Time to disease recurrence, death, or recovery
Engineering:  Time to equipment failure
Social:       Time to job termination, divorce, or graduation
Business:     Time to customer churn or first purchase
Ecology:      Time to species extinction in a habitat

Censoring