title: How the United Nations mortality tables hang together.
abstract: The mortality statistics of 80 member states of the United Nations were used to calculate Gompertz constants. When compared with a model based on the cumulant of failures of 46 human biological functions, they were found to form essentially one set, their slopes spreading out from a constant value like spokes from the axle of a wheel. Data for the longest lived regions agree with a prediction based on the above model, and those for less long lived regions are consistent with such a model having a constant normal cumulant average but increased S.D.s. Several different approaches support the view that the data are based on a probabilistic life-span.
authors.affiliation: Age Concern Institute of Gerontology, King's College London, UK. robert.weale@kcl.ac.uk
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Weale
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008017:Life Expectancy; D008136:Longevity; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008954:Models, Biological; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009026:Mortality; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology