Follow-Up Life Table Analysis

Abstract

In this chapter we demonstrate how the analysis of people’s experience over time—for example, survival after some treatment intervention—can be performed with the WLS approach. The analysis of survival data using life table methodology has been widely applied in the medical field, especially in clinical trial experiments. Examples of this type of analysis are provided by Merrell and Shulman (1955) and by Zubrod and others (1960). In these studies patients receiving different treatments are followed over time and their survival experience or remission periods are compared. This same methodology is now being used in other policy fields. Potter (1966) studied the retention of contraceptives using life table analysis, for example, while Wollstadt, Shapiro, and Bice (1978) and Forthofer, Glasser, and Light (1980) applied this method to study membership retention in health maintenance organizations (HMOs). The life table approach is applicable whenever one tracks people over time—for example, studying the recidivism of parolees or juvenile delinquents.