Survival curve

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Survival Curve

A Survival Curve (pronounced: suhr-vahy-vuhl kurv) is a statistical graph that is used in various fields, including medicine, biology, and public health, to illustrate the proportion of individuals in a population who have survived over a certain period of time.

Etymology

The term "Survival Curve" is derived from the English words "survival", which means to continue to live or exist, and "curve", which refers to a line or outline that gradually deviates from being straight for some or all of its length.

Definition

In the context of medical research, a Survival Curve is often used to display the results of a study involving life tables, Kaplan-Meier estimates, or Cox proportional hazards models. The curve typically starts at 100% survival and declines over time, with each event (such as death or failure) represented by a downward step on the curve. The x-axis represents time, while the y-axis represents the proportion of the population that has survived.

Related Terms

  • Life tables: A statistical tool used to present the probability of a person's death before their next birthday, based on their age.
  • Kaplan-Meier estimates: A non-parametric statistic used to estimate the survival function from lifetime data.
  • Cox proportional hazards: A regression model that is used to investigate the effect of several variables upon the time a specified event takes to happen.

Usage in Medicine

In medicine, Survival Curves are often used in clinical trials to compare the survival rates of two or more treatment groups. They are also used in epidemiology to study the survival rates of patients with different diseases, the effectiveness of different treatments, and the impact of various risk factors on survival.

External links

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