Ranking Age-at-Death Distributions using Dominance: Robust Evaluation of United States Mortality Trends, 2006–2021
Description
Do file and dataset for dominance analysis on US age at death distributions (data sourced from CDC life tables). Abstract: Diverging mortality trends at different ages motivate the monitoring of lifespan inequality alongside life expectancy. Conclusions are ambiguous when life expectancy and lifespan inequality move in the same direction or when inequality measures display inconsistent trends. We propose using non-parametric dominance analysis to obtain a robust ranking of age-at-death distributions. Application to United States period life tables for 2006-2021 reveals that, until 2014, more recent years generally dominate earlier years implying improvement if longer lifespans that are less unequally distributed are considered better. Improvements were more pronounced for non-Hispanic Blacks and Hispanics than for non-Hispanic Whites. Since 2014, for all subpopulations—particularly, Hispanics—earlier years often dominate more recent years indicating worsening age-at-death distributions if shorter and more unequal lifespans are considered worse. Dramatic deterioration of the distributions in 2020-21 during the COVID-19 pandemic is most evident for Hispanics.