Mortality tempo versus removal of causes of mortality: Opposite views leading to different estimations of life expectancy

Abstract

We propose an alternative way of dealing with mortality tempo. Bongaarts and Feeney have developed a model that assumes a fixed delay postponing each death. Our model, however, assumes that changes take place with the removal of a given cause of mortality. Cross-sectional risks of mortality by age and expectations of life therefore are not biased, contrary to the model of the two authors. Treating the two approaches as two particular cases of a more general process, we demonstrate that these two particular cases are the only ones that have general properties: The only model enjoying a decomposable expression is the removal model and the only model enjoying the proportionality property is the fixed delay model.

Keywords

• cause of death
• causes of mortality
• cross-sectional life-table
• fictitious life-table
• life tables
• mortality tempo
• multiple decrement life-table
• reference life-table