Validità di una misura non tradizionale della mortalità

Main aims of this study are the demonstration of the effectiveness of a non-weighted indicator of mortality: the total mortality rate and its calculation for the Italian population using the data contained in the cohort life tables calculated for Italy for the cohorts 1872-1917. The construction of a non-weighted (synthetic) indicator of mortality has not been matter of detailed discussion in the scientific literature and, as a matter of fact, there’s only a very limited number of publications on this subject (Sardon, 1993 and 1998; Termote, 1998). We would like to focus on this indicator for its interesting features. First, it is additive in the sense that the application of a non-weighted sum procedure allows the local decomposition of the index. Moreover, non-weighted indicators are sensitive to the level of disaggregation by age, unlike the weighted ones. Being, above all, a theoretical study, the main result of the present work is to demonstrate that the total mortality rate has a key advantage over similar indicators based on a weighted sum, because in space/temporal comparison, it can neutralize the bias resulting from dynamic factors, like age−specific lifestyles resulting in different mortality rates which, as emphasized in the literature, change over time and space. The adoption of this procedures can neutralize the homogenization effect, a central feature of all weighted sum procedures.