Surface Plots of Rates of Mortality Improvement for Selected Causes of Death in the United States

Abstract

This chapter shows that ROMI plots, as presented in the previous chapter, can not only be employed for mortality from all-causes but also for cause-specific mortality. They allow us to demonstrate that the slow increase in life expectancy among women in the United States during the 1980s and 1990s can not be attributed to heart diseases or stroke. Instead, mortality from respiratory diseases and from lung cancer, the latter featuring a pronounced cohort effect, suppressed faster gains in life expectancy.