A computer program for multiple decrement life table analyses

✍ Scribed by W.Kenneth Poole; Philip C. Cooley

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1977
• Weight: 465 KB
• Volume: 7
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0010-468X
• DOI: 10.1016/0010-468x(77)90013-7

✦ Synopsis

Life table analysis has traditionally been the tool of choice in analyzing distribution of "survival" times when a parametric form for the survival curve could not be reasonably assumed. Chiang, in two papers [1,2] formalized the theory of life table analyses in a Markov chain framework and derived maximum likelihood estimates of the relevant parameters for the analyses. He also discussed how the techniques could be generalized to consider competing risks and follow-up studies. Although various computer programs exist for doing different types of life table analysis [3] to date, there has not been a generally available, well documented computer program to carry out multiple decrement analyses, either by Chiang's or any other method. This paper describes such a program developed by Research Triangle Institute. A user's manual is available at printing costs which supplements the contents of this paper with a discussion of the formula used in the program listing.