title: Construction of expanded continuous life tables--a generalization of abridged and complete life tables.
abstract: This article extends the recent abridged life-table method of Hsieh. It generalizes the conventional discrete (abridged and complete) life tables into a continuous life table that can produce life-table functions at any age and develops a unified method of life-table construction that simplifies the disparate laborious procedures used in the traditional approach of constructing abridged and complete life tables. A set of precise procedures based on the complete cubic spline for the main body of the table and a mortality law for advanced ages is developed for estimating the basic and nonbasic life-table functions from a given mortality schedule. The proposed method can also produce more life-table functions than other existing methods. The method is illustrated with Canadian data.
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Hsieh
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D015993:Life Tables; D009026:Mortality