Introduction to Kaplan and Meier (1958) Nonparametric Estimation from Incomplete Observations

摘要: During the late 1940s and early 1950s, stimulated in part by Sir Bradford Hill’s (1951) advocacy of randomized clinical trial as a cornerstone modern scientific medicine, medical research workers began to undertake numerous follow-up studies patient populations order assess effectiveness treatment. A challenging problem analysis data from such investigations, whose typical endpoint was death patient, stemmed fortunate fact that not all patients had died at end study. Thus, some observed lifetimes were censored on right, meaning simply they known only exceed an observation limit equal time interval patient’s entry study its close or, if incomplete, loss further observation. This precluded use classical statistical procedures based averages.