Longevity: Social Aspects
Future Trends In Life Expectancies
Few researchers assert that there will be no future mortality improvement. Although there have been periodic setbacks in life expectancy increases, say, with AIDS, such setbacks are usually of short duration and are compensated for by later improvements in controlling and treating infectious diseases and by further improvements in other causes of death. Thus, the question is not whether mortality will improve in the future, but by how much it will improve, and what age, sex, race/ethnic, and socioeconomic status groups will reap the greatest improvements. Overall, continued changes in health behavior, developments in medical technology, and improved quality of life bode for a generally bright future, most likely with steady increases in average length of life accompanied by an increasingly healthy population.
RICHARD G. ROGERS ROBERT A. HUMMER
See also LIFE EXPECTANCY; LIFE SPAN EXTENSION; LONGEVITY: REPRODUCTION; LONGEVITY: SELECTION; POPULATION AGING.
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LONGITUDINAL STUDY
See PANEL STUDY; PHYSIOLOGICAL CHANGES; SURVEYS
Additional topics
Medicine EncyclopediaAging Healthy - Part 3Longevity: Social Aspects - Survival Curves, Rectangularization Of Mortality, Mortality By Cause, Longer Lives And Better Health, Factors Related To Mortality