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The ratio of expansion to compression: A new measure of lifespan disparity
Numerous studies have shown that high life expectancy is closely related to low life disparity. Unlike life expectancy, which can be increased by mortality decline at any age, life disparity can either increase or decrease in response to mortality decline. Disparity can thus be decomposed into two o...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7735627/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33315959 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243482 |
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author | Zhang, Zhen Li, Qiang |
author_facet | Zhang, Zhen Li, Qiang |
author_sort | Zhang, Zhen |
collection | PubMed |
description | Numerous studies have shown that high life expectancy is closely related to low life disparity. Unlike life expectancy, which can be increased by mortality decline at any age, life disparity can either increase or decrease in response to mortality decline. Disparity can thus be decomposed into two opposite components, called compression and expansion, depending on the effect of mortality decline on the age distribution of mortality. Without specifying the two components, various conventional measures of disparity may provide misleading information relating to how life chances in society can be equalized. Based on the relevant properties of changes in disparity, we develop a new measure of disparity—the ratio of expansion to compression—that can account for the relative importance of the two components. This simple measure not only provides a clear view of the evolution of disparity, but also permits changes in disparity related to mortality decline to be interpreted in a consistent manner similar to life expectancy. Simulations and an empirical analysis demonstrated the advantages of this new measure over conventional measures of disparity. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7735627 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-77356272020-12-22 The ratio of expansion to compression: A new measure of lifespan disparity Zhang, Zhen Li, Qiang PLoS One Research Article Numerous studies have shown that high life expectancy is closely related to low life disparity. Unlike life expectancy, which can be increased by mortality decline at any age, life disparity can either increase or decrease in response to mortality decline. Disparity can thus be decomposed into two opposite components, called compression and expansion, depending on the effect of mortality decline on the age distribution of mortality. Without specifying the two components, various conventional measures of disparity may provide misleading information relating to how life chances in society can be equalized. Based on the relevant properties of changes in disparity, we develop a new measure of disparity—the ratio of expansion to compression—that can account for the relative importance of the two components. This simple measure not only provides a clear view of the evolution of disparity, but also permits changes in disparity related to mortality decline to be interpreted in a consistent manner similar to life expectancy. Simulations and an empirical analysis demonstrated the advantages of this new measure over conventional measures of disparity. Public Library of Science 2020-12-14 /pmc/articles/PMC7735627/ /pubmed/33315959 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243482 Text en © 2020 Zhang, Li http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Zhang, Zhen Li, Qiang The ratio of expansion to compression: A new measure of lifespan disparity |
title | The ratio of expansion to compression: A new measure of lifespan disparity |
title_full | The ratio of expansion to compression: A new measure of lifespan disparity |
title_fullStr | The ratio of expansion to compression: A new measure of lifespan disparity |
title_full_unstemmed | The ratio of expansion to compression: A new measure of lifespan disparity |
title_short | The ratio of expansion to compression: A new measure of lifespan disparity |
title_sort | ratio of expansion to compression: a new measure of lifespan disparity |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7735627/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33315959 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243482 |
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