On the age-wise decomposition and measurement of life expectancy changes in Ethiopia: 1990-2019
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20261053Keywords:
Arriaga method, Ethiopia, Life expectancy decompositionAbstract
This study aimed to break down the life expectancies of Ethiopia and its regional states age wise, and to evaluate the relative contributions of different age groups, regions, and effect types. Data were collected from the UN-World Population Prospects 2022 online source and the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019 and a system of Brass' logit model life tables that allowed for the estimation of abridged life tables and the subsequent extraction of life expectancies was built. Consequently, Arriaga method was used to break down the life expectancies age-wise into direct and other effects over 1990-2019. Results revealed life expectancy in Ethiopia rose by 16.977 years from 49.3 years in 1990 to 66.2 in 2019. Of the types of effect, the other effect, and of the age groups, infants and under five children, were the primary positive contributors to this increase. Regionally, no significant contribution differences were observed but Addis Ababa exhibited a negative other effect contribution in the old ages. Direct effect contribution was negligible in the 0-4 age group warns that improvements in life expectancy were due to indirect and interaction effects and thus further intervention is required to achieve direct effect improvements.
Metrics
References
Gisbert FJG. Distributionally adjusted life expectancy as a life table function. Demogr Res. 2020;43:365-400. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4054/DemRes.2020.43.14
Auger N, Feuillet P, Martel S, Lo E, Barry AD, Harper S. Mortality inequality in populations with equal life expectancy: Arriaga's decomposition method in SAS, Stata, and Excel. Ann Epidemiol. 2014;24(8):575-80. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annepidem.2014.05.006
Jembere GB, Cho Y, Jung M. Decomposition of Ethiopian life expectancy by age and cause of mortality 1990-2015. PloS one. 2018;13(10): e0204395. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0204395
Preston SH, Heuveline P, Guillot M. Demography, measuring and modeling population process. Blackwell Publishers. 2001.
Ponnapalli KM. A comparison of different methods for decomposition of changes in expectation of life at birth and differentials in life expectancy at birth. Demogr res. 2005;12:141-72. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4054/DemRes.2005.12.7
Na'amnih W, Muhsen K, Tarabeia J, Saabneh A, Green MS. Trends in the gap in life expectancy between Arabs and Jews in Israel between 1975 and 2004. Int J epidemiol. 2010;39(5):1324-32. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyq073
Goldman N, Andrasfay T. Life expectancy loss among Native Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic. Demogr res. 2022;47:233. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4054/DemRes.2022.47.9
Andreev EM, Shkolnikov VM, Begun AZ. Algorithm for decomposition of differences between aggregate demographic measures and its application to life expectancies, healthy life expectancies, parity-progression ratios and total fertility rates. Demogr Res. 2002;7:499-522. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4054/DemRes.2002.7.14
Bergeron-Boucher MP, Ebeling M, Canudas-Romo V. Decomposing changes in life expectancy: Compression versus shifting mortality. Demogr Res. 2015;33:391-424. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4054/DemRes.2015.33.14
Aburto JM, Schöley J, Kashnitsky I, Zhang L, Rahal C, Missov T, et al. Quantifying impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic through life expectancy losses: a population-level study of 29 countries (preprint). medRxiv. 2021. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.02.21252772
Arriaga EE. Measuring and explaining the change in life expectancies. Demography. 1984;21(1):83-96. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2061029
Beltrán-Sánchez H, Preston SH. A new method for attributing changes in life expectancy to various causes of death, with application to the United States. Population Studies Centre Working Paper Series. 2007. Available at https://www.psc.isr.umich.edu/pubs/pdf/rr07618.pdf.Accessed on 13 September 2025.
Romo VC. Decomposition methods in demography. In Handbook of population. 2003.
Pollard JH. On the decomposition of changes in expectation of life and differentials in life expectancy. Demography. 1988;25(2):265-76. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2061293
Leong DP, Teo KK, Rangarajan S, Lopez-Jaramillo P, Avezum A, Orlandini A. World Population Prospects 2019. The decade of healthy ageing. Geneva: World Health Organization. World. 2018;73(7):362k2469.
Zafeiris KN. Gender differences in life expectancy at birth in Greece 1994–2017. J Popul Res. 2020;37(1):73-89. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12546-019-09239-4
Pressat R. Contribution des écarts de mortalité par âge à la différence des vies moyennes. Population (French edition). 1985;766-70. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3917/popu.p1985.40n4-5.0770
Andreev EM. Metod komponent v analize prodoljitelnosty zjizni. (The method of components in the analysis of length of life). Vestnik statistiki. 1982;9(3):42-7.
Pollard JH. The expectation of life and its relationship to mortality. J Inst Actuar.1982;109(2): 225-40. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020268100036258
De Castro MC. Changes in mortality and life expectancy: some methodological issues. Math Popul Stud. 2001;9(4):181-208. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/08898480109525503
Brass W. Mortality models and their uses in demography. Trans Fac Actuar. 1971;33:123-42. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0071368600005164
GBD 2019 Ethiopia Subnational-Level Disease Burden Initiative Collaborators. Progress in health among regions of Ethiopia, 1990–2019: A subnational country analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study. The Lancet. 2022;399(10332):1322-35.