Strategic Analytics and SAS

Survival – The Long and Short of It

There are basically two types of survival analysis:

• Continuous time
• Discrete time

Continuous time examples are typically found in areas such biological or health/life sciences. An excerpt from a health care study of continuous time might be something like the following: “A recent study published by the American Journal of Public Health found that the life expectancy among smokers who quit at age 35 is exceeded by that of continuing smokers from 6.9 to 8.5 years for men and 6.1 to 7.7 years for women.” This type of statement indicates an average time to death (often called MTTF or mean time to failure or event) is shorter among smokers versus nonsmokers with the qualification of both folks ...