Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Clinical Trial
. 1986;39(8):595-604.
doi: 10.1016/0021-9681(86)90184-0.

The Markov process as a general method for nonparametric analysis of right-censored medical data

Clinical Trial

The Markov process as a general method for nonparametric analysis of right-censored medical data

A Hillis et al. J Chronic Dis. 1986.

Abstract

The product limit method of Kaplan and Meier for estimating survival functions and the logrank test of Mantel are widely employed for analysis of longitudinal medical data. Developed for analysis of one-time events such as death, survival analysis is also commonly adapted to more complex states such as loss of vision or cancer remission by restricting analysis to first occurrences. The nonparametric discrete time nonhomogeneous Markov process is proposed as a better model for any applications of the latter type. This simple stochastic model allows for an arbitrary number of possible states and for transitions in any direction. Maximum likelihood estimators are easily computed for the stochastic model and are identical to the product-limit estimates in the special case represented by the Kaplan-Meier model. The logrank test extends to evaluation of differences between populations with respect to any specified transition.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

Cited by

Publication types