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Estimation of death rates in US states with small subpopulations
Author(s) -
Voulgaraki Anastasia,
Wei Rong,
Kedem Benjamin
Publication year - 2014
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.6385
Subject(s) - zero (linguistics) , mortality rate , statistics , logarithmic scale , logarithm , mathematics , estimation , demography , econometrics , economics , physics , philosophy , mathematical analysis , linguistics , management , sociology , acoustics
In US states with small subpopulations, the observed mortality rates are often zero, particularly among young ages. Because in life tables, death rates are reported mostly on a log scale, zero mortality rates are problematic. To overcome the observed zero death rates problem, appropriate probability models are used. Using these models, observed zero mortality rates are replaced by the corresponding expected values. This enables logarithmic transformations and, in some cases, the fitting of the eight‐parameter Heligman–Pollard model to produce mortality estimates for ages 0–130 years, a procedure illustrated in terms of mortality data from several states. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.