Actuarial Aging Rate Is Not Constant within the Human Life Span
- 1 January 1989
- journal article
- research article
- Published by S. Karger AG in Gerontology
- Vol. 35 (2-3) , 113-120
- https://doi.org/10.1159/000213008
Abstract
It is often believed that the mortality intensity in the modern human population undergoes an exponential growth after 40 years, i.e. the actuarial aging rate is regarded to be constant after 40 years. To check this assumption we have calculated local aging rate values for 13 age ranges (within the interval of 30–92 years) for the male and female population of 48 states of the US (1969–1971). It was found that generally the male aging rate is not constant but lowers monotonically with time, while for females the aging rate has a pronounced ∼-shaped character with a minimum in the range of 45–60 years and a maximum within the range of 70–80 years. The results obtained are a warning to those who boldly use Gompertz or Gompertz-Makeham formulas when describing human aging on the population level.Keywords
This publication has 6 references indexed in Scilit:
- Human Life Span Stopped Increasing: Why?Gerontology, 1983
- Rate of aging, rate of dying and the mechanism of mortalityArchives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 1982
- The exponential increase in mortality rate with age attributed to wearing-out of biological componentsJournal of Theoretical Biology, 1979
- On the Statistical Nature of Mortality, with Especial Reference to Chronic Radiation MortalityRadiology, 1956
- On Some Experiments in the Graduation of Mortality StatisticsJournal of the Institute of Actuaries, 1932
- On the Law of Mortality and the Construction of Annuity TablesThe Assurance Magazine and Journal of the Institute of Actuaries, 1860