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2 Abergas,Allan Neil S., Mosquito,Raphael Willard M., Ramos,Ann Kyrstin R., Tendenilla,Sophia

3 Lorraine S.
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4 Department of Biological Sciences, College of Science, University of Santo

5 Tomas, Manila

8ABSTRACT

9 Studying mortality data is crucial in determining the trends in the population growth in a

10particular area. Analysis on this helps the government to come up with appropriate and effective

11health services. The aim of the researchers is to compare the mortality and survivorship of the

12males and females throughout the Metro Manila. Three cemeteries namely; Loyola Memorial

13Park, Manila North Cemetery and the Manila Memorial park were surveyed with births not

14earlier than 1925. The researchers have observed that the females had a lower rate of mortality

15and a higher rate of survivorship in comparison to that of the males.

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26Keywords: mortality, population, survivorship

27INTRODUCTION
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28 Populations are described by population size, density and growth. In studying population

29growth, it helps ecologists to predict future changes in population sizes and growth rates (Snider

30& Brimlow 2013). In determining if a population will grow or shrink, birth and death rates of

31organisms at different ages, including the current age and sex make-up of the population, are

32used by the ecologists. Population growth is presented by using life tables and survivorship

33curves.

34 Life Tables record birth and death of a population. It summarizes the likelihood of when

35a population will live, die and/or reproduce at different stages of their lives (Purves et al. 2003).

36Ecologists use this to gain knowledge and help protect species. For example, the endangered

37red panda. Ecologists follow them from birth to death, recording how many pandas has survived

38and how many cubs had been born per year. This process could help better understand the life

39history and reproduction pattern of the endangered red panda group.

40 Survivorship Curves show what section of a starting group is still alive at each

41consecutive age. There are three types of survivorship curves and each type are based on their

42shape. Type 1, this is where humans and most primates reside. They have a decency to not die

43when they are young or middle-aged, instead they die when they are elderly. Their reproduction

44is in small numbers and they provide a lot of parental care to ensure the survival of their

45offspring. Type 2 comprises of many bird species; they die more or less equally at each age

46interval. In similar with Type 1, they also reproduce few offspring and provide significant

47parental care. Type 3 comprises of trees, marine invertebrates and most of the fish species. Not

48many organisms survive their younger years, the organisms that survived have a possibility of

49having a long life after that. They reproduce a lot of offspring at once but doesn’t provide any

50care for the offspring (McDonald 2013).

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51 The objectives of this study are to figure out if the datasets for male, female and mixed

52acquired from different cemeteries are comparable and to show which gender had better

53survivorship and mortality rate.

54MATERIALS AND METHODS

55Materials

56 The members of the group made use of materials include paper, pencil, life table sheets

57and laptop.

58Methods

59Data Collection

60 Each member have visited different cemeteries include Manila Memorial, Loyola

61Memorial and Manila North Cemetery wherein the birthdates and death dates of 200 males and

62200 females for a total of 400 individuals were recorded. The researchers determined the

63gender of each individual based on their names and calculated their age of death.

64Construction of Life Table

65 The researchers constructed life tables for female, male and both. Life tables are used

66as a method to study and measure survivorship, mortality and life expectancy of a population at

67varying ages (Igwenagu 2014). In this study, a life table was consisting of seven columns as

68instructed in the given worksheets. The first column represents the ages grouped into five-year

69intervals and labeled as x. The second column also known as age-specific interval indicated the

70number of people died in each age group and labeled as d x. The third column shows the

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71number of people survived in the beginning of the age interval. The number of individuals who

72have died in the first age interval were subtracted to the total number of people being studied.

73Next, the number of individuals in each age group were subtracted from the remaining total

74number of people being studied and labeled as nx .

75Calculation of Survivorship and Mortality Rate

76 The survivorship was shown in the fourth column of the life table and labeled as l x refers

77to the number of individuals survived in each age class. The values were calculated as the

78current nx divided by the total number of people. The next column known as the mortality rate

79(qx) was calculated by the values of dx divided by the corresponding values of nx.

80Computation of Life Expectancy

81 The average number of individuals alive during each age interval (L x) was calculated by

82average of nx and nx+1. The sixth column shows the values from the sum of L x cumulatively from

83the bottom of the column to the first age group and labeled as T x. Lastly, the values of life

84expectancy (ex) were calculated by the values of tx divided by the corresponding values of nx.

85Statistical analysis

86 The researchers used Nested ANOVA for the statistical test to determine whether the

87subgroups namely survivorship rate, mortality rate and average deaths were affected by a factor

88like gender. This test was also used to test the comparability between a subgroup per factor.

89The programs used were Microsoft Excel and R studio.

90RESULTS

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92Table 1a-b. Table comparing selected Life Table elements between female,male and mixed

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102 The life table was constructed by calculating for the Survivorship Rate, Mortality rate and

103counting for the age specific deaths within a certain age range. Based off the life table, the

104researchers used a line graph (Figure 1a-b) to compare the rates and age specific deaths

105between the Female, Male and Mixed category. Using the figures, it was concluded by the

106researchers that the Female population gathered had a better lifestyle compared to the Males

107and the Mixed categories. This was due to the lower mortality rate and higher survivorship rate

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109 Based off of Figure 1a-b it was shown that most of the deaths based on the mortality

110rate of all genders were when the age of the population reached 60. It was also shown that in

111the Type 1 survivorship curve that there is a point in time that the population dies all at once.

112For the survivorship curve used the age of sudden death was shown to be 81+

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114Figure 1a-b. Line graphs showing the comparison Mortality Rate and Survivorship Rate

115between female, male and mixed data

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136Figure 2. Map showing the cemeteries surveyed within Metro Manila

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138 To further prove the decision, the researchers decided to use the Nested ANOVA

139statistical test. This was to determine whether the subgroups; namely the survivorship rate,

140mortality rate and average deaths were affected by a factor like gender. This test was also used

141to test the comparability between a subgroup per factor. The researchers then decided that the

142null hypothesis is that each of the Survivorship Rate, Mortality Rate and Average Death is

143significantly different per gender.

144 The P- Values in Table 2. were all shown to be greater than .05 which signifies that the

145null hypothesis is failed to be rejected. This then led the researchers to believe that the gender

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146factor affects subgroups like Survivorship Rate, Mortality Rate and Average death count.

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148Table 2. Table showing the results acquired from the Nested ANOVA test

Compared Data P-Value (Pr(>F))

Survivorship Rate .962

Mortality Rate .598

Average Deaths 1
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150DISCUSSION

151 In a study by Alberts et. al. (2014), aging and mortality are compared in humans to

152determine whether they follow the male-female health-survival paradox. This observed

153phenomenon in which women encounter greater longevity but are more prone to disability and

154poor health than men. Despite this, there is a prevalent evidence that men die younger than

155women even though they have better health due to biological and environmental differences

156that include behavioral, cultural, and social factors (Wingard et. al. 2013). Based from other

157statistics, the cause of high mortality rate of males is due to cardiovascular disease and

158alcoholic drinks. Despite this, women are reported to have poorer health than men. This shows

159that even without health risks in men, women still have a survival advantage than men. (Alberts

160et. al. 2014). In relation to our data, it shows that men have higher mortality rates than women

161and that women have higher survivorship rates than men. Both of the studies yielded the same

162results.

163 In a similar study conducted by Carter et.al (2011), the life expectancy of males and

164females in Bohol, Philippines are close to the official estimates of the National Statistics Office

165which were 68.19 and 71.0 to 72.9 respectively. In relation to the researchers’ study, the results

166of our survey seemed to match with the analysis done by Carter et.al (2011) because most of

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167the males and females’ ages of death ranged from 66 to 70. The similarity in death of age and

168life expectancy could be attributed to the fact that the sites were all cemeteries in the

169Philippines.

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176CONCLUSION

177 To figure out which gender had a better lifestyle when comparing their survivorship rates

178and mortality rates the researchers gathered data based on the birth and death date of

179individuals, create a life table, and use the nested ANOVA statistical test to show differences

180between the rates and age specific deaths between the genders. Among the rates of the

181genders observed it was concluded that Males and Females experience significant differences

182in terms of their mortality rate and survivorship rate and age specific deaths. It was also

183concluded Females usually having the more optimal rate, a lower mortality and higher

184survivorship, compared to the Males. This conclusion was further supported the ANOVA results

185in which the subgroups which were the rates and age specific deaths, were shown to have a

186significant difference based on the gender of the population.

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187REFERENCES

188BOOK

189 PURVES WK. et. al. 2003. Life tables summarize patterns of births and deaths. In Life:

190 The science of biology, 1038-1040. 7th ed. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates, Inc.

191Journal Articles

192 ALBERTS S. et al. 2014. The Male-Female Health-Survival Paradox: A Comparative

193 Perspective on Sex Differences in Aging and Mortality. Retrieved from:

194 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK242444/ on 10 November 2019

195IGWENAGU C. 2014. The Application of Life Table Functions: A Demographic Study. IOSR

196 Journal of Mathematics. Volume 10.80-20. 10.9790/5728-10148082

197SNIDER SB, BRIMLOW JN. 2013. An Introduction to Population Growth. Nature Education

198 Knowledge 4(4):3. Retrieved from https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/an-

199 introduction-to-population-growth-84225544/ on 10 November 2019

200Electronic References

201CARTER KL. et al. 2011. Capture-recapture analysis of all-cause mortality data in Bohol,

202 Philippines. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/1478-7954-9-9 on 10

203 Novermber 2019

204MCDONALD DB. 2013. Patterns of survival and mortality. Population ecology. Retrieved from

205 http://www.uwyo.edu/dbmcd/popecol/feblects/lect09.html on 10 November 2019

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