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: These are the discussant comments for the Concurrent Session 1B: Late Life Mortality Curves from the January 4-6, 2017 Living to 100 Symposium in Orlando.

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.