The Pattern of Mortality Convergence in Older Ages

Sang Lim Lee, Utah State University
Philip B. Mason, Utah State University

According to the selective survival theory, as persons enter old age, the mortality inequality decreases effect of sociodemographic factors due to inherited genetic characteristics. This study examines how different convergence patterns appear due to sociodemographic factors by dividing them into four groups consisting of ascribed sociodemographic factor, endogenous factor, social contextual and environmental to investigate the variety of convergence pattern. We suspect that as a person ages, first the determinations and coefficients of social factors decrease, second, ascribed sociodemographic factor decreases the most, and third, exogenous factor converges the least. We employ the data set of the National Longitudinal Survey (NLS) older men as the main source of information.