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Historical Trends in Mortality

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International Handbook of Adult Mortality

Part of the book series: International Handbooks of Population ((IHOP,volume 2))

Abstract

A large gap in health conditions has prevailed around the world for many decades. According to the United Nations estimates, in 2005–2010 life expectancy at birth ranged from less than 45 years in Afghanistan and Zimbabwe to more than 80 in Japan, Australia, and France (United Nations [UN] 2009).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    According to Omran (1971, 1983), man-made diseases include “diseases introduced by man such as radiation injuries, accidents, occupational hazards, carcinogenes in the environment and in industry and food additives.” In this chapter man-made diseases also include alcohol- and tobacco-related mortality, homicide, and suicide.

  2. 2.

    The idea of convergence is a general basis of the demographic transition theory, not only for life expectancy but also for fertility, and it is very commonly referred to in works related to the application of the theory. It has been discussed by various authors (see, for example, Coleman 2002).

  3. 3.

    Olshansky and Ault: “A fourth stage of the epidemiologic transition.” Rogers and Hackenberg refer to a “new” or “hybristic” stage.

  4. 4.

    Because male trajectories are more affected by exceptional events like wars, it is preferable to use female trajectories to look at long-term trends.

  5. 5.

    According to Andreev’s (1982) method, which is equivalent to those proposed by others (Arriaga 1984; Pollard 1982; Pressat 1985).

  6. 6.

    The year when Austrian historical data (Ediev and Giesser 2007) start to be reliable (available data start in 1819 but show an unrealistic decline of life expectancy until 1829).

  7. 7.

    If we ignore the fact that Afghanistan stopped progressing in the 1980s for specific reasons that will be seen later.

  8. 8.

    According to its economic system and performance, Japan is here considered as belonging to the western world.

  9. 9.

    In this section, examples are given for males, for whom the contrast between eastern and western trends is much greater, but females follow the same process at the same time.

  10. 10.

    According to Andreev’s method (Andreev 1982).

  11. 11.

    In fact at that age, most of the “other diseases” group corresponds to perinatal and congenital diseases.

  12. 12.

    It seems increasingly likely that since the 1993–1994 socioeconomic crisis, the progress in the three Baltic countries has been more than reestablished (Meslé 2004).

  13. 13.

    For example, through daily health care at home or in nursing homes, meal supply, and free access to drugs and other means to treat diseases that do not require hospitalization.

  14. 14.

    Figure 2.27, in arithmetic scale, seems to indicate that the pace of decline is much less in France and the United States than in Russia, Japan, and Chile. The arithmetic scale indicates absolute changes, not relative changes. In fact the much smaller absolute changes observed here in the first two countries correspond to relative changes as high as in the other three countries, in spite of their much larger absolute changes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut national d’études démographiques, Research Unit (Mortality, Health, Epidemiology), 133 Boulevard Davout, 75020, Paris, France

    France Meslé & Jacques Vallin (Directeur de recherche)

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  1. France Meslé
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  2. Jacques Vallin
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Correspondence to France Meslé .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Sociology, University of Colorado, Boulder, Boulder, 80309-0327, Colorado, USA

    Richard G. Rogers

  2. Davis School of Gerontology, Andrus Gerontology Center, University of Southern California, McClintock Ave. 3715, Los Angeles, 90089-0191, California, USA

    Eileen M. Crimmins

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Meslé, F., Vallin, J. (2011). Historical Trends in Mortality. In: Rogers, R., Crimmins, E. (eds) International Handbook of Adult Mortality. International Handbooks of Population, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9996-9_2

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