Life Table
It is a special kind of table to
calculate life expectancy at birth &
subsequent ages respectively.
It is the tabular display of life
expectancy & probability of dying at
each age( or age group) for a given
population , according to the age-
specific death rates prevailing at the
time.
Life tables are used to predict
how long a particular individual
will live.
We can use life tables for other
vital events like natality,
reproduction, chances of
survival.
Uses
To determine expectation of life –
imp. Health status indicator.
Useful to analyse the number of
survivors at different age groups :
- At age 5 to find no. of children
likely to enter primary school.
- At age 18 to find no. of person who
become eligible for voting etc.
To find mortality of given
population – for international
comparison.
By modified life table technique ,
we can find the survival rate after
treatment in chronic diseases.
To compute insurance premium &
annuities.
Construction of life table & its
properties.
Life table are constructed after each
census.
We usually follow a cohort of
1,00,000 newborn babies & follow
them through various ages(0,
1,5,15…)till all die.
Requirements
Age- specific death rates of a given
population during the selected year.
Population living at all ages for the
selected year.
Age Age- No. No. ‘nlx’ ‘Tx’ Avg
interval sp. living dying remaining
Death ‘lx’ ‘ndx’ life ‘ex’
rates
0- 1 68.9 100000 6890 94832 5978010 59.87
1-5 21.1 93110 2110 368220 5883178 63.18
5-10 10.42 91000 1042
10-15
149225 246724
75+ 249.9 97499 97499
First column – age interval( 0-1,
1-5)
Second column – age specific
death rates/ 1000 population.
Fourth column ‘ndx’– No. of
individuals dying during the age
interval for 1,00,000 population who
were born alive.
Third column ‘lx’ – No. of individuals
alive at their nth birthday.
5th column ‘nlx’ – total no of person-years
lived by the cohort at each age.
6th column ‘tx’ – total no. of person-
years lived after exact age x, the last
value of nlx is written in last row of tx.
- second last = sum of last 2 rows of
nlx.
7th column ‘ex’- expectation of life at
age x
ex = tx / lx,
at birth = 5978010/100000 = 59.78.
Interpretation
1. Avg. remaining life( exp. of life at
birth) is used to describe health
status of the population.
- for international comparison.
2. In our life table , it is shown that
expectation of life at one year(61)
is more than that at birth(59).
3. Using life table we are able to
predict the chance that an
individual will live to a particular
age.
- l5/ l0 = 91000/100000 = 0.91=
91%
probability of surviving for a
person in this cohort upto 5yrs is
91%.
4. LIC able people commonly use
life table for computing life
insurance premium.
5. Years of potential life lost
( YPLL), DALYs, QALYs
- l 55/ l 20 = 86%
Application to health problems
Comparison of communities.
Analysis by cause of death.
Population problems
Morbidity analysis
Hospital studies
Clinical medicine.
References
Methods of biostatistics, 2nd
edition, 2004 – T. Bhaskar Rao.
Introduction to biostatistics, 3rd
edition 2002 – [Link] Rao,
J. Richard.
Methods of biostatistics, 6th
edition – B. K. Mahajan
