Week 6: Measuring Mortality II

Question 1

What is life expectancy?

Answer 1

A measure of the number of years a person of a given age in a population can be expected to live based on the age-specific mortality rates for that population.

Question 2

List the advantages of measuring mortality using life expectancy.

Answer 2

• It is age standardised and so can be used as a basis for comparing populations.
• Life expectancy at birth provides a single figure summary of a population’s mortality experience.
• Calculated using only age-specific mortality rates using a life table.

Question 3

What is a life table?

Answer 3

Life tables are based on the probability of dying between one age (or age group) & the next age (or age group).

Question 4

What are the two types of life tables?

Answer 4

• Full life table (using single year of age information)
• Abridged life table (using grouped age information)

Question 5

What data is required to build a life table?

Answer 5

Age-Specific Mortality Rates (ASMRs) which have to be converted into probabilities of dying between exact ages (q-type rates) to generate the life table.