Maxim Finkelstein
James Vaupel

http://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol14/7/

doi:10.4054/DemRes.2006.14.7

	Click the icon to view and/or download the PDF file. Once you are in the PDF file, use your browser back button to return to this page.

Abstract
Vaupel (1998) posed the provocative question, “When it comes to death, how do people and flies differ from Toyotas?” He suggested that as the force of natural selection diminishes with age, structural reliability concepts can be profitably used in mortality analysis. Vaupel (2003) went a step further, using simulations to investigate the impact of redundancy, repair capacity, and heterogeneity on the relative length of post-reproductive life spans, called relative tails of longevity. His 2003 paper showed that structural redundancy and the possibility of repair decrease the relative tail of longevity, whereas greater heterogeneity increases it. Here, we consider the problem in much greater generality and prove these results analytically. Structures with repairable and non-repairable components are considered. Heterogeneity is described by a frailty-type model and different definitions of the tail of longevity are discussed.

Author's affiliation
Maxim Finkelstein
University of the Free State, South Africa
James Vaupel
Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Germany

Keywords
frailty, heterogeneity, life expectancy, life span, mortality, mortality rate, tail of longevity

Word count (Main text)
4500

Other articles by the same author/authors (in Demographic Research)

	[21-29] Survival as a Function of Life Expectancy
	[20-29] The age separating early deaths from late deaths
	[20-3] Life lived and left: Carey’s equality
	[20-1] Formal Relationships: Introduction and Orientation
	[13-24] Lifesaving, lifetimes and lifetables
	[13-6] On stochastic comparisons of population age structures and life expectancies
	[8-7] Oldest Old Mortality in China
	[7-8] Life Expectancy at Current Rates vs. Current Conditions: A Reflexion Stimulated by Bongaarts and Feeney’s "How Long Do We Live?"
	[7-1] Decomposing demographic change into direct vs. compositional components
	[6-5] Dr. Väinö Kannisto: A Reflexion

Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research

	[19-50] Biodemography: Research prospects and directions (life span, frailty)
	[19-35] An integrated approach to cause-of-death analysis: cause-deleted life tables and decompositions of life expectancy (mortality, life expectancy)
	[18-14] Constant global population with demographic heterogeneity (life expectancy, heterogeneity)
	[15-21] Mortality tempo-adjustment: An empirical application (mortality, life expectancy)
	[14-13] Survival differences among the oldest old in Sardinia: who, what, where, and why? (mortality, life expectancy)

[ Back to previous page ]