Decomposition of life expectancy at birth by age and causes of death among residents of Liaoning province, 1975 - 2005

Abstract

To analyze the impact of mortality by age and causes of death on life expectancy at birth among residents of Liaoning province. The study included mortality data of urban and rural residents in two periods (1973 - 1975 and 2004 - 2005). Both Abridged Life Table and Arriaga method were used to calculate and to decompose life expectancy changes by age and causes of death. From 1975 - 2005, the life expectancy increased by 4.68 years in urban residents and 4.91 for rural residents with a higher increment among females than males. Most part of the increase (76.27% and 82.81% for urban and rural male, 58.76% and 62.13% for urban and rural female) in life expectancy within the last 30 years could be explained by the decrease of mortality in the populations at age 0 - 4 and 55 - 74. Diseases related to respiratory system and infectious disease were contributing the most to the gap in life expectancy between the two periods. Mortality of heart disease was a negative contributor to the changes in life expectancy among both rural and urban residents while the mortalities of cerebro-vascular diseases and malignant tumors were the negative contributors for rural residents. The increase of life expectancy in the last 30 years was mainly resulted from the decrease of mortality on both respiratory and infectious diseases. Control of chronic diseases is the key point to increase the life expectancy among the residents of Liaoning province.