1 Answers
In statistics, censoring is a condition in which the value of a measurement or observation is only partially known.
For example, suppose a study is conducted to measure the impact of a drug on mortality rate. In such a study, it may be known that an individual's age at death is at least 75 years. Such a situation could occur if the individual withdrew from the study at age 75, or if the individual is currently alive at the age of 75.
Censoring also occurs when a value occurs outside the range of a measuring instrument. For example, a bathroom scale might only measure up to 140 kg. If a 160-kg individual is weighed using the scale, the observer would only know that the individual's weight is at least 140 kg.
The problem of censored data, in which the observed value of some variable is partially known, is related to the problem of missing data, where the observed value of some variable is unknown.