In survival analysis, the Kaplan-Meier estimator is used to plot survival curves. 'Censored' observations are those where:

• A The subject died from a cause unrelated to the study disease
• B The subject was excluded for protocol violation
• C The data point has an extreme value and was removed as an outlier
• D The subject was lost to follow-up or the study ended before the event occurred ✓

Explanation

In Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, censored observations are those where the event of interest has not occurred by the time of last contact — either because the study ended (administrative censoring) or the subject was lost to follow-up. Censored subjects contribute follow-up time until censoring but their final outcome is unknown. Death from an unrelated cause is a competing risk, not the same as censoring, though it may be treated as censored in some analyses. Protocol violators are typically handled through per-protocol analysis.

Reference: Park's Textbook of Preventive and Social Medicine, 27th ed.

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