Investigation of survival during the follow-up period is common in cardiovascular research and has intrinsic issues that require precise knowledge, such as survival or censoring. Besides, as the follow-up period lengthens and events other than mortality are studied, the analysis becomes more complex, so Kaplan-Meier analyses or Cox models are not always sufficient. In this primer, we provide the reader with detailed information on the interpretation of the most common survival analyses and delve into methods to analyse competing risks or alternatives to the conventional methods when the proportional hazards assumption is not met.
Keywords: competing risks analysis; proportional hazards assumption; restricted mean survival time; survival analysis.
© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. All rights reserved.