Cumulative
proportional
mortality measures the accumulation of deaths as a percentage
of the total deaths. For specific causes of death, proportional
mortality measures the contributing proportion of each cause of death to
the total number of deaths. Here, proportional mortality is shown
for White and Black males by age for years 1994 and
2004.
Black Males' Mortality
Improvement Over 11 years
The graph of
cumulative proportional mortality by age shows both the age at which a
given proportion of deaths have occurred (left to right), and the
proportion of deaths that occur at a given age (bottom to
top).
Fifty percent of deaths occur at about age sixty for Black males
and about age seventy for White males; this represents their
median age at death and shows little change from 1994 to 2004.
2.
The vertical lines (A, B, and C) show the years needed to
accumulate thirty percent of deaths. In 1994, thirty
percent of Black male deaths occurred by age 45 (line A), while
in 2004 (line B) this increased to age fifty-two, an increase of
about seven years. White males (line C) accumulated thirty
percent of their deaths by age sixty-two, and were unchanged
from 1994 to 2004.
A major point to make from
proportional mortality studies is the length of time it takes (as age in
years) for a given proportion of deaths to accumulate. If the
proportion of deaths, over time, occurs at a later age, then it is assumed
that a population is healthier.
©1999-2007