Estimation of Survivorship Function Based on Doubly Censored Data with Application to HIV/AIDS

Left censoring concept has been defined in different ways in statistical applications. Turnbull (1974 Turnbull , B. W. ( 1974 ). Nonparametric estimation of a survivorship function with doubly censored data . J. Amer. Statist. Assoc. 69 : 169 – 173 .[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) defines it in a particular way. Whereas in recent literature, especially in epidemiological studies, it has been defined in another way. This difference between the two approaches is the main reason that despite simplicity, Turnbull method cannot be applicable in all cases of doubly censored data. In this article we present a modified Turnbull method for analysis of doubly censored data adequate with recent definition. Comparison has been done with other statistical methods, including imputation estimator, full likelihood-based and conditional likelihood-based approach using Iranian HIV data.