Dynamics of life expectancy and life span equality

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1915884117
• Publication Date: 2020-02-25T01:29:49Z
• Authors: José Manuel Aburto; Francisco Villavi...; Ugofilippo Basellini; Søren Kjærgaard; James W. Vaupel
• Keywords: Male; Aging; demography; Databases, Factual; Longevity; Population Dynamics; AGEING; Social Sciences; LIFE_SPAN; pace and shape; 03 medical and health sciences; Life Expectancy; Sex Factors; 0302 clinical medicine; Pace and shape; Humans; Mortality; Demography; Life span variation; Sweden; MORTALITY; aging; Age Factors; life span variation; mortality; 3. Good health; Female; [SHS] Humanities and Social Sciences; Public Health

Significance Why life expectancy and life span equality have increased together is a question of scientific interest. Both measures are calculated for a calendar year and might not describe a cohort’s actual life course. Nonetheless, life expectancy provides a useful measure of average life spans, and life span equality gives insights into uncertainty about age at death. We show how patterns of change in life expectancy and life span equality are described by trajectories of mortality improvements over age and time. The strength of the relationship between life expectancy and life span equality is not coincidental but rather a result of progress in saving lives at specific ages: the more lives saved at the youngest ages, the stronger the relationship is.