Determining a subject’s age using SAS software involves calculating the difference between a date of birth and a reference date, often the current date. This can be achieved through various SAS functions such as INTCK, YRDIF, and INTNX, each offering different levels of precision and handling of leap years and calendar irregularities. For instance, calculating the age in years between a birth date of ’01JAN1980′ and ’01JAN2024′ using YRDIF would yield a result of 44.
Accurate age determination is crucial in numerous fields including demographics, healthcare research, insurance, and financial planning. Historically, manual calculations or less sophisticated software solutions posed challenges in handling large datasets and ensuring precision, particularly with varying date formats and calendar systems. SAS streamlines this process, facilitating precise and efficient age computation, even with complex data structures. This allows researchers and analysts to focus on data interpretation and application rather than tedious calculations.