MPIDR Working Paper

Aging: damage accumulation versus increasing mortality rate

Finkelstein, M. S.
MPIDR Working Paper WP-2005-018, 11 pages.
Rostock, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (August 2005)
Open Access

Abstract

If aging is understood as some process of damage accumulation, it does not necessarily lead to increasing mortality rates. Within the framework of a suggested generalization of the Strehler-Mildwan (1960) model, we show that even for models with monotonically increasing degradation, the mortality rate can still decrease. The de-cline in vitality and functions, as manifestation of aging, is modeled by the monotonically decreasing quality of life function. Using this function, the initial lifetime ran-dom variable with ultimately decreasing mortality rate is ‘weighted’ to result in a new random variable which is already characterized by the increasing rate.
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.