Description: Because data quality is critical in the measurement of an event as rare as the death of a supercentenarian, special care must be used. We will discuss practical methods of validation used by researchers in the field, alternate methodologies and data cleaning procedures to ensure validity of mortality data as extreme old age. We will also explore some of the consequences of inadequate data preparations on the curve of mortality at the end of life.

Description: A recent study sheds light on the measurement and implications of the relationship between increased morbidity and declining disability. The results were not consistent across all populations. This study of the compression of morbidity is part of a wider project called the M-project, led by the four authors, which aims to explore the demographic factors leading to an increase in the adult longevity, investigate the phenomenon called the compression of mortality and develop a new methodological approach to longevity analysis with focus on the modal age at death M.

Description: Recent reviews of national health trends show conflicting results. It is clear today that the various health dimensions follow different trends over time. For instance, an expansion of morbidity may accompany a compression of disability. What do we measure when we observe a decline in disability? Is the elderly population intrinsically healthier or are individuals more independent and less helped by children, using more technical devices in a more favorable environment?

Description: This paper reviews available evidence about the compression of morbidity and the disability decline and discusses the context in which they occur: initial level of disability, initial value of life expectancy and trend in life expectancy.

Description: Demographers have typically viewed mortality trends from historical and cross-national perspectives, looking at commonalities in the evolution of mortality. In general, with improving economic conditions mortality has tended to decline and life expectancies to rise. The epidemiological transition from a mortality pattern dominated by infectious diseases to one in which more endogenous causes of death predominate is a central theme.

Description: This paper evaluates the quality of International Database on Longevity IDL data according to several criteria, such as the country of residence or the validation process undertaken, and then provides an estimation of the mortality trajectory up to age 114. From 2005 Living to 100 and Beyond Monograph, M-LI05-1.

Description: Presented at Living to 100 Symposium, January 2002. This paper is a first attempt to assess which group of mortality trajectories proposed by various researchers is confirmed by empirical data between the age of 110 and 115 years when the exponential trajectories on the one hand and the logistic or quadratic trajectories on the other hand have diverged sufficiently.

Description: Experts' discussion of data sources, quality, and analysis. From 2005 Living to 100 and Beyond Monograph, M-LI05-1.

Description: The abstract for the paper IDL, the International Database on Longevity.

Description: Mortality in general, and especially amongst the oldest old, is known to be partially shaped by seasons: winter is classically characterized by excess mortality. We therefore put forward the use of season-related life tables to study the mortality trajectories of the oldest old. This approach can be used to explore the plasticity of longevity, by opposing winter and summer trajectories. Furthermore, summerrelated life tables summarize the best conditions of mortality, i.e., the lowest values and the least fluctuating pattern. Results are presented for Switzerland, where season-related life tables have been computed until age 110.