ReviewGerontology2020
Life Expectancy: Frequently Used, but Hardly Understood.
Review in Gerontology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
45 citing papers in PubMed.
- The Geography of Frail Ageing in Italy: Longevity, Non-Self-Sufficiency and Implications for Assistance Benefits.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Article
- Harvesting Effect and Extreme Temperature-Related Mortality in Italy.European journal of population = Revue europeenne de demographie · 2026Article
- Life expectancy in clinical practice: assessment, communication, and decision-making.Archives of medical science : AMS · 2026Article
- Geographical Inequalities in Mortality by Age and Gender in Italy, 2002-2019: Insights from a Spatial Extension of the Lee-Carter Model.Spatial demography · 2026Article
- Life expectancy of cancer patients in China.Military Medical Research · 2026Article
- Fragile gains: The impact of refugees and other permit immigrants on national life expectancy in Sweden before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic.Journal of migration and health · 2026Article
- A simulation study of the impact of population-wide lifestyle modifications on life expectancy in the Chinese population.Nature communications · 2025Article
- National and subnational trends of years of life lost and reduced life expectancy caused by bladder cancer in China from 2005 to 2020.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Contributions of injury deaths to changes in life expectancy and disparity: A comparative analysis of G7 countries over two decades.Population health metrics · 2025Article
- Temporal trends in mortality due to coronary heart disease in Germany from 1998 to 2023.Journal of health monitoring · 2025Article
- Carotenoids for Antiaging: Nutraceutical, Pharmaceutical, and Cosmeceutical Applications.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Article
- Against the grain: International migrants, the children of migrants and national life expectancy in Sweden, 1990-2019.SSM - population health · 2024Article
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- Article
- Demographic Trends in Liver Transplant Survivors After 3 Decades of Program Implementation: The Impact of Cohort and Period Effects on Life Expectancy.Transplantation direct · 2024Article
- Years of Life Lost to COVID-19 and Related Mortality Indicators: An Illustration in 30 Countries.Biometrical journal. Biometrische Zeitschrift · 2024Article
- Projected Life Expectancy for Adolescents With HIV in the US.JAMA health forum · 2024Article
- [Healthy life expectancy: a critical look at the benefits and potential of the demographic health indicator].Bundesgesundheitsblatt, Gesundheitsforschung, Gesundheitsschutz · 2024Review
- The impact of COVID-19 on life expectancy across socioeconomic groups in Denmark.Population health metrics · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Period life expectancy is one of the most used summary indicators for the overall health of a population. Its levels and trends direct health policies, and researchers try to identify the determining risk factors to assess and forecast future developments. The use of period life expectancy is often based on the assumption that it directly reflects the mortality conditions of a certain year. Accordingly, the explanation for changes in life expectancy are typically sought in factors that have an immediate impact on current mortality conditions. It is frequently overlooked, however, that this indicator can also be affected by at least three kinds of effects, in particular in the situation of short-term fluctuations: cohort effects, heterogeneity effects, and tempo effects. We demonstrate their possible impact with the example of the almost Europe-wide decrease in life expectancy in 2015, which caused a series of reports about an upsurge of a health crisis, and we show that the consideration of these effects can lead to different conclusions. Therefore, we want to raise an awareness concerning the sensitivity of life expectancy to sudden changes and the menaces a misled interpretation of this indicator can cause.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.