Journal Article

L’avant-garde en matière d’espérance de vie montre-t-elle la voie au reste de la population?

Jasilionis, D., Shkolnikov, V. M., Andreev, E. M., Jdanov, D. A., Vågerö, D., Meslé, F., Vallin, J.
Do vanguard populations pave the way towards higher life expectancy for other population groups?
Population: Édition Française, 69:4, 589–615 (2014)

Abstract

The mechanisms of increasing human longevity have been elucidated in part by observing vanguard groups whose mortality has decreased more quickly than the rest of the population. In this study, this pioneering group is made up of married, highly educated individuals. Using individual census-linked mortality data, the authors compare trends in life expectancy and mortality by cause of death between this vanguard group and the rest of the population from the 1970s to the 1990s. The study shows that besides simply following directions shown by the vanguard groups, non-vanguard groups have their own pathways to low mortality which are related to specific determinants of mortality changes.
Keywords: Finland, Norway, Sweden, differential mortality, education, life expectancy, marital status
The Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) in Rostock is one of the leading demographic research centers in the world. It's part of the Max Planck Society, the internationally renowned German research society.