MATLAB: Calculating constant hazards in exponential survival distributions

exponentialhazard functionsurvival

I am trying to do a survival anapysis by fitting exponential model. I was told that I shouldn't just fit my survival data to a exponential model. Instead, I should aim to calculate the hazard fundtion, which is λ in exponential distribution. My data will be like 10 surviving time, for example: 4,4,5,7,7,7,9,9,10,12.
My question is how do I fit the exponential survival distribution and calculate hazard. And what function should I use?
I am new to matlab and I appriciate any help and suggestions.

Best Answer

The exponential distribution is a one-parameter distribution, so all you can do is estimate that parameter. Once you have that estimate, everything else is also determined, including the hazard function. So you could think of "estimating the parameter" as the same thing as "estimating the hazard function".
For the maximum likelihood estimator of the parameter and a bias-corrected estimator, check Wikipedia
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