Definition:Censored Observation/Left

Definition

Consider a statistical study of a disease.

There exists a difficulty if the time of onset is unknown.

This is because it may not be known if the disease is detected only when the patient is examined medically at the point where symptoms of the disease are apparent.

In these circumstances, such data are said to be left censored.

Also see

• Definition:Right Censored Observation

• Results about censored observations can be found here.

Sources

• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): censored observation
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): censored observation