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The parameters of death: A consideration of the quantity of information in a life table using a polynomial representation of the survivorship curve
Author(s) -
Anson Jon
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
statistics in medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.996
H-Index - 183
eISSN - 1097-0258
pISSN - 0277-6715
DOI - 10.1002/sim.4780070808
Subject(s) - survivorship curve , table (database) , representation (politics) , population , logarithm , polynomial , statistics , mathematics , life table , combinatorics , computer science , demography , data mining , mathematical analysis , sociology , politics , political science , law
How much unique information is contained in any life table? The logarithmic survivorship ( l x ) columns of 360 empirical life tables were fitted by a weighted fifth degree polynomial, and it is shown that six parameters are adequate to reproduce these curves almost flawlessly. However, these parameters are highly intercorrelated, so that a two‐dimensional representation would be adequate to express the similarities and differences among life tables. It is thus concluded that a life table contains but two unique pieces of information, these being the level of mortality in the population which it represents, and the relative shape of the underlying mortality curve.