Book Chapter

Mortality in varying environment

Finkelstein, M. S.
In: Nikulin, M. S., Commenges, D., Huber, C. (Eds.): Probability, statistics, and modelling in public health, 145–157
New York, Springer (2006)

Abstract

An impact of environment on mortality, similar to survival analysis, is often modeled by the proportional hazards model, which assumes the corresponding comparison with a baseline environment. This model describes the memory-less property, when the mortality rate at a given instant of time depends only on the environment at this instant of time and does not depend on the history. In the presence of degradation the assumption of this kind is usually unrealistic and history-dependent models should be considered. The simplest stochastic degradation model is the accelerated life model. We discuss these models for the cohort setting and apply the developed approach to the period setting for the case when environment (stress) is modeled by the functions with switching points (jumps in the level of the stress).
The Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) in Rostock is one of the leading demographic research centers in the world. It's part of the Max Planck Society, the internationally renowned German research society.