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Updated: Jan 4, 2026

Establishing a Competing Risk Regression Nomogram Model for Survival Data
Published on: October 23, 2020
Understanding survival analysis: actuarial life tables and the Kaplan-Meier plot
Ahmed Barakat1, Aaina Mittal2, David Ricketts3
1Clinical Fellow Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery, Department of Trauma and Orthopaedics, Princess Royal Hospital, Haywards Heath, West Sussex RH16 4EX.
Abstract:
Survival analysis is a set of methods used to study the time between enrollment in a study and the occurrence of an event of interest. Two methods are commonly used: actuarial life tables and the Kaplan-Meier approach for survival analysis. A good understanding of both these methods is useful when reading and appraising the literature concerning prognostic and interventional studies. Kaplan-Meier curves are widely used as they enable analysis of incomplete sets of data (i.e. after patients withdraw from studies or are lost to follow up). This review explains these two methods and gives practical examples of their use.
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