Swanson D A
Department of Sociology, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Washington 98447.
Demography. 1989 Feb;26(1):161-70.
Life expectancy is an important indicator of the level of mortality in a population. However, the conventional way of calculating life expectancy--constructing a life table--has rigorous data requirements. As a consequence, life expectancy data are not usually available for substate areas. In this article, a regression model for estimating life expectancy is constructed, using state-level data, and is tested against two sets of 1980 life expectancy data: (1) a nationwide sample of metropolitan areas and (2) selected cities, their suburbs, and rural counties in Ohio. An additional test shows the sensitivity of the model's accuracy to errors in one of its input data elements. The results suggest that the model should be given serious consideration for generating life expectancy estimates for substate areas.
预期寿命是一个人口死亡率水平的重要指标。然而，计算预期寿命的传统方法——构建生命表——对数据要求严格。因此，通常无法获得次州级地区的预期寿命数据。在本文中，利用州级数据构建了一个用于估计预期寿命的回归模型，并针对两组1980年的预期寿命数据进行了检验：（1）全国范围内的大都市区样本，以及（2）俄亥俄州的选定城市、其郊区和农村县。另一项测试显示了该模型准确性对其一个输入数据元素中的误差的敏感性。结果表明，该模型在生成次州级地区的预期寿命估计值时应得到认真考虑。
