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- Title
A novel generalized normal distribution for human longevity and other negatively skewed data.
- Authors
Robertson, Henry T; Allison, David B
- Abstract
Negatively skewed data arise occasionally in statistical practice; perhaps the most familiar example is the distribution of human longevity. Although other generalizations of the normal distribution exist, we demonstrate a new alternative that apparently fits human longevity data better. We propose an alternative approach of a normal distribution whose scale parameter is conditioned on attained age. This approach is consistent with previous findings that longevity conditioned on survival to the modal age behaves like a normal distribution. We derive such a distribution and demonstrate its accuracy in modeling human longevity data from life tables. The new distribution is characterized by 1. An intuitively straightforward genesis; 2. Closed forms for the pdf, cdf, mode, quantile, and hazard functions; and 3. Accessibility to non-statisticians, based on its close relationship to the normal distribution.
- Publication
PloS one, 2012, Vol 7, Issue 5, pe37025
- ISSN
1932-6203
- Publication type
Journal Article
- DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0037025