The Consequences of Varying Measurement Occasions in Discrete-Time Survival Analysis

In a discrete-time survival model the occurrence of some event is measured by the end of each time interval. In practice it is not always possible to measure all subjects at the same point in time. In this study the consequences of varying measurement occasions are investigated by means of a simulation study and the analysis of data from an empirical study. The results of the simulation study suggest that the effects of varying measurement occasions are negligible, at least for the scenarios that were covered in the simulation. The empirical example shows varying measurement occasions have minor effects on parameter estimates, standard errors, and significance levels.