Survival Analysis 101: An Easy Start Guide to Analyzing Time-to-Event Data.

Survival analysis, also called time-to-event analysis, is a common approach to handling event data in cardiovascular nursing and health related research. Survival analysis is used to describe, explain, and/or predict the occurrence and timing of events. There is a specific language used and methods designed to handle the unique nature of event data. In this methods paper, we provide an "easy start guide" to using survival analysis by a) providing a step-by-step guide, and b) applying the steps with example data. Specifically, we analyze cardiovascular event data over 6 months in a sample of patients with heart failure.