Citation

Beltrán-Sánchez H, Soneji S. Theor. Popul. Biol. 2011; 80(1): 38-48.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.tpb.2011.05.002

PMID

21609727

PMCID

PMC3125714

Abstract

For over forty years, demographers have worked intensely to develop methods that assess a gain in life expectancy from a reduction in mortality, either hypothetical or observed. This considerable body of research was motivated by assessing the gains in life expectancy when mortality declined in a particular manner and determining the contribution of a cause of death in observed changes in life expectancy over time. As yet, there has been no framework unifying this important demographic work. In this paper, we provide a unifying framework for assessing the change in life expectancy given a change in age- and cause-specific mortality. We consider both conceptualizations of mortality change-counterfactual assessment of a hypothetical change and a retrospective assessment of an observed change. We apply our methodology to violent deaths, the leading cause of death among young adults, and show that realistic targeted reductions could have important impacts on life expectancy.

Language: en

Keywords

Humans; United States; Child; Adult; Child, Preschool; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Aged; Female; Male; Middle Aged; Life Expectancy; Homicide; Adolescent; Cause of Death; Suicide; Violence; Mortality; Young Adult; Sex Distribution; Aged, 80 and over; Age Distribution; Accidents, Traffic; Algorithms; Mathematics; Life Tables