Too old to give blood? Not in South Korea
As populations age across East Asia, blood banks face a double squeeze: fewer young donors and more elderly patients needing transfusions. South Korea, Oh Seok Kim notes, has promptly responded … Read more
Health and mortality
Presence or absence of sickness, disabilities, and other impediments. Survival, measured both analytically (e.g. by age) or synthetically (e.g. life expectancy at birth)
Violence begets violence. Evidence from the Nigerian Civil War (1967–1970)
Women exposed to war are known to be at higher risk of intimate partner violence, but is this simply because their husbands, too, endured war? Studying the Nigerian Civil War … Read more
Can we really predict individual-level longevity?
Disparities in life expectancy across sociodemographic groups are large in the U.S. Still, using linked Census and mortality records for men born in 1910, Casey Breen and Nathan Seltzer find … Read more
Measuring life expectancy with care needs in Ibero-American countries
Increasing life expectancy across the world calls for a comprehensive understanding of how these additional years are lived by individuals. By estimating years of life expectancy with care needs in … Read more
Beyond national borders: assessing avoidable mortality across European districts (2002–2019)
Avoidable mortality is traditionally analysed at the national level. Using district-level data from 10 European countries between 2002 and 2019, Sophie Stroisch, Michael Mühlichen, Pavel Grigoriev and Tobias Vogt reveal … Read more
How seasonal mortality shapes life expectancy in Europe (2000-2019)
Mortality in Europe follows a clear seasonal pattern, with more deaths during winter months especially, but their impact on life expectancy is often overlooked. Using data from 20 countries, Isabella … Read more
Small-scale mortality in Italy: 2002–2018*
The study of small-scale mortality, although of great interest, is rarely feasible due to data limitations. By exploiting a municipality-level database prepared by the Italian National Institute of Statistics (Istat), … Read more
The disproportionate burden of multi-morbidity at death in the US
Using multiple cause-of-death data from the United States, France, Italy, and Spain, Magali Barbieri and colleagues show that multi-morbidity at death contributes disproportionately to the US disadvantage in life expectancy … Read more
The importance of educational expansion for longevity trends
Educational expansion has contributed to increasing the average lifespan and reducing its variability. As Jesús-Daniel Zazueta-Borboa, Ugofilippo Basellini and Fanny Janssen show for England & Wales, Finland, and Italy (Turin) … Read more
Paris: from capital of early death during the Belle Époque (1871-1914) to a longevity champion today
Paris was once marked by high mortality. In the late 19th century, the French capital lagged significantly behind the rest of France in life expectancy. Today, it ranks among the … Read more
Strong impact of lifestyle factors on trends in socio-economic mortality inequalities
The key public health problems of smoking, alcohol and obesity are strongly socially patterned. In recent years, Fanny Janssen says, they have contributed markedly both to average educational inequality in … Read more
The health trajectories of refugees and how they differ from those of other migrants
Alessandro Ferrara investigates whether refugees arriving in Germany during the 2010s follow the same health trajectories as other migrants. He finds that, like other newcomers, refugees arrive with strong physical … Read more
A century of mortality crises in France and its regions
While the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted societies worldwide, its demographic toll in France was far lower than the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic or the 1911 heatwave. Florian Bonnet and Carlo-Giovanni Camarda … Read more
Depression is rising in China
Depressive symptoms are on the increase in China, both over the life course and across cohorts. As Tingshuai Ge, Frans Johannes van Leeuwen, Quanbao Jiang and Liliya Leopold indicate, disparities … Read more
Cohabitation and mortality in Sweden: does living with a non-marital partner extend life?
Married individuals tend to live longer, but what about cohabiters? Using data from the Swedish registry, Jesper Lindmarker, Martin Kolk and Sven Drefahl find that cohabitation reduces the risk of … Read more
Increasing health expectancies in China
The gradual increase in life expectancy and the accelerating pace of population aging pose significant challenges to economies, health systems, and healthcare infrastructure all over the world and, as Yu … Read more
From deficit to excess: mortality in Uruguay during the COVID-19 pandemic
In 2020, Latin America became the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the number of deaths increased dramatically. Meanwhile, Uruguay experienced lower mortality levels than the previous year despite a … Read more
Stagnating mortality convergence across European regions in recent years
While mortality is low in Europe, progress is slowing down and regional convergence, once notable, may have come to a halt. Markus Sauerberg, Florian Bonnet, Carlo-Giovanni Camarda, and Pavel Grigoriev … Read more
Infant mortality after an unintended birth
There is a longstanding interest in understanding whether children born following unplanned pregnancy could be at higher risk of negative health outcomes, including early life mortality. Using Demographic and Health … Read more
A quarter of a century of euthanasia and assisted suicides
Statistics on euthanasia and assisted suicides are rarely available, in part because very few countries have legalized this form of end of life, and usually only in recent or very … Read more
Europe’s COVID-19 death toll in 2020 and 2021: stark regional differences
Europe was hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. While its effects at national level are now well known, intranational differences have been less frequently investigated. Florian Bonnet, … Read more
Mortality from cardiovascular diseases around the globe
Mortality from cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) is the leading cause of death worldwide, in high, middle and low-income countries. Emerson A. Baptista and Bernardo L. Queiroz investigate whether CVD mortality rates … Read more
COVID-19 exacerbated inequalities in life expectancy in Denmark
Social inequalities in mortality expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic in Denmark. Cosmo Strozza, Serena Vigezzi, Julia Callaway, and José Manuel Aburto quantified life expectancy changes in 2020 and 2021 and … Read more
Self-rated health trends by gender and race in the USA, 1972-2018
Are Americans feeling better or worse since the 1970s and does this pattern vary by gender and race? Jason L. Cummings explores U.S. trends in self-rated health inequalities over the … Read more
Racial disparities in disability and in long and happy living in America
The racial divide is still profound in the U.S., in terms not only of survival, and survival without disabilities, but also of happiness. Anthony R. Bardo and Jason L. Cummings … Read more
Frailty at death: A four-country study
Frailty represents a major public health challenge in ageing populations. In this study, Sergi Trias-Llimós, Magali Barbieri, Viviana Egidi, Luisa Frova, Francesco Grippo, France Meslé, Marilena Pappagallo, and Aline Désesquelles … Read more
Mortality and morbidity drivers of international health inequality
Over the last decades, survival prospects have generally increased worldwide. Using data from the Global Burden of Disease project, Iñaki Permanyer and Octavio Bramajo investigate how mortality and morbidity have … Read more
Is morbidity compressing around the globe?
Does health deterioration manifest at increasingly (dis)similar ages? Iñaki Permanyer, Francisco Villavicencio and Sergi Trias-Llimós explore inequalities in age-at-morbidity onset globally, and find these to be larger than lifespan inequalities. … Read more
Who felt lonely during the COVID-19 pandemic among European older adults?
Feelings of loneliness are not very widespread among European older adults (aged 50 years and over) according to SHARE data. And, surprisingly enough, according to the analysis of Omar Paccagnella, … Read more
Kinlessness and loneliness before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic
The pre-COVID literature established that lacking a partner or children was among the risk factors for loneliness among older people. Bruno Arpino, Christine A. Mair, Nekehia T. Quashie, and Radoslaw … Read more
Why and where are deaths under-reported in India?
The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of accurately counting deaths, classifying them by age, sex, place of residence and cause. Although formally mandatory since 1969, death registration … Read more
America’s high homicide rate
America leads advanced developed countries in terms of guns per capita and homicide rates, although with substantial variation by state, gender, and major racial/ethnic groups. Given its policies on police, … Read more
Health before and after union dissolution among mothers, fathers and children
Norwegian register data indicate that parents’ mental health deteriorates prior to union dissolution but improves afterwards. In contrast, Øystein Kravdal and Jonathan Wörn note, children seem to experience a continued … Read more
Late-career employment trajectories and postretirement mortality among Italian retirees
Benedetta Scotti1 examines the relationship between late-career trajectories and post-retirement mortality in Italy. She finds that exposure to employment instability in later working life, an increasingly prevalent phenomenon in many … Read more
Olympic Games help children grow up healthy
The benefits of the Olympic Games may be numerous and long lasting. Chao Guo highlights the positive role of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in reducing the risks of both … Read more
Child survival in India: Hindus now catching up with Muslims
Until recently, child survival in India was lower among Muslims than among Hindus, despite the lower average socio-economic status of the former. Dibyasree Ganguly and Srinivas Goli note that this … Read more
Did COVID-19 policies increase inequalities in mental well-being?
Besides its morbidity and mortality effects, COVID-19 gave rise to several non-pharmaceutical policy interventions affecting citizens’ social and economic conditions. Veronica Toffolutti et al. find that these measures negatively affected … Read more
Life expectancy variation 2019–2021 and the role of Covid-19 vaccination
Taking a broader and more long-term perspective on the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on life expectancy may help scholars and policy makers to assess its true impact, and the … Read more
The 2019-21 decline in global life expectancy
The Covid-19 pandemic has induced the first decline in global life expectancy since World War II. Substantial uncertainty remains about the exact pace of the decline, Patrick Heuveline notes, but … Read more
Urban survival advantage in low- and middle-income countries: do children fare better than adults?
In low- and middle-income countries, children survive better in urban than in rural areas. However, Ashira Menashe-Orenand and Bruno Masquelier find that this is not necessarily the case amongst adults, … Read more
Access to antiretroviral therapy for HIV/AIDS and life expectancy in South Africa
Despite widespread prevalence of HIV/AIDS, South Africa has succeeded in drastically reducing mortality and increasing life expectancy, from 54 to more than 65 years in little over a decade (2006-17). … Read more
Can stunted children recover after the first 1,000 days?
The food shortages during the Second World War in Japan had adverse consequences for child growth. However, Eric Schneider argues that the age and cohort pattern of the war shock … Read more
America’s pandemic of the unvaccinated
The politicization of COVID-19 has changed America’s coronavirus pandemic from a serious public health concern into a major political issue and has contributed to vaccine avoidance. With many Americans declining … Read more
The death toll of COVID-19 in Mexico in 2020
The impact of COVID-19 on period life expectancy (LE) in Mexico in 2020 was strong, much stronger, for instance, than that of the 10-year war on drugs. Víctor M. García-Guerrero … Read more
A big challenge for the 21st century: will obesity cut the gains of longevity?
Two recent global phenomena appear to be working against each other: longevity and obesity. The rapid increase of the latter, in both developed and developing countries, may jeopardize the progress … Read more
Maternal education and infant mortality decline in Indonesia
Better maternal education has been credited with making a major contribution to infant mortality decline. However, previous studies have overestimated the contribution of better maternal education. Using individual-level data from … Read more
Closely spaced births reduce survival chances of existing and future children
Understanding the determinants of child health and mortality is an important step towards reducing child mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. Philippe Bocquier, Carren Ginsburg, Ashira Menashe-Oren, Yacouba Compaoré, and Mark Collinson … Read more
Global trends in child loss: less and later
Child loss continues to be a common life event for women in the Global South. Diego Alburez-Gutierrez documents a historic opportunity to close the gap between the South and the … Read more
Gendered health burdens and benefits of starting and ending caregiving
What happens to caregivers’ health when they stop caregiving? Damiano Uccheddu, Tom Emery, Nardi Steverink, and Anne H. Gauthier investigate the matter across 17 European countries with an innovative method … Read more
Gender and socioeconomic inequalities in health after age 50 in Europe
Does the impact of socioeconomic factors on health after midlife vary among women and men depending on the welfare context? Apparently it does: Damiano Uccheddu, Anne H. Gauthier, Nardi Steverink, … Read more
Longer lives, poorer health in England
Stephen Jivraj, Alissa Goodman, Benedetta Pongiglione and George Ploubidis find that, among working-age adults in England, later-born cohorts tend to have higher prevalence of various indicators of poor health and … Read more
COVID-19 pandemic: demographic highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has resulted in enormous consequences worldwide. Joseph Chamie highlights the pandemic’s impact on the components of population change: mortality, fertility and migration. … Read more
Are demographic indicators really converging in post transitional countries?
After the demographic transition, convergence in all demographic behaviours (moderate fertility, low mortality and very low migration) is the guiding assumption of the UN World Population Prospects Revisions. Maria Castiglioni, … Read more
From deprivation to neonatal and post-neonatal mortality in Bolivia
Filippo Temporin identifies three possible mechanisms whereby deprivation can affect neonatal and post-neonatal mortality. Using data from the 2008 Bolivia Demographic and Health Survey, however, he concludes that in a … Read more
Strong combined impact of smoking, obesity, and alcohol on survival improvements in Europe
Smoking, obesity and alcohol are considered key public health problems in Europe. Fanny Janssen, Sergi Trias-Llimós, and Anton Kunst show how changes over time in these three lifestyle factors have … Read more
Prevalence of chronic diseases associated with increased risk of severe COVID-19 in the Philippines
The Philippines has the one of the highest numbers of COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia. Using the 2016 National Disability Prevalence Survey, Jeofrey B. Abalos describes the prevalence of chronic … Read more
How many people experience homelessness in Australia?
Homelessness is damaging to individuals and society – and an exceedingly difficult phenomenon for researchers and policy makers to measure and analyse. In this article, James O’Donnell describes a new … Read more
Comparing mortality variability between the United States and peer countries
Compared to other high-income countries, the United States has lower life expectancy and greater age-specific mortality variability, due in part to a higher concentration of deaths at young ages. Justin M. … Read more
More children linked to lower mortality in contemporary Norway, with exceptions
In Norway, as the number of children increases, mortality generally falls or remains almost constant. However, Øystein Kravdal notes an exception when it comes to cardiovascular disease mortality: for men who … Read more
The child health benefits of parents’ education in diverse African families
Does union status affect the intergenerational transmission of advantage? Using data from 30 African countries, Emily Smith-Greenaway examines whether the health advantages associated with parents’ education are comparable for childrenwith … Read more
Two centuries of change in the spatial inequality of mortality in France
Spatial inequalities in mortality decreased in France between 1881 and 1980 (“the century of convergence”), and life expectancy increased at national level. However, Florian Bonnet and Hippolyte d’Albis show that … Read more
Markedly lower child mortality in Malawi and Uganda with more educated mothers
Using data from Demographic and Health Surveys, Liliana Andriano and Christiaan Monden show that, everything else equal, each additional year of maternal schooling reduces children’s probability of dying before age … Read more
Missing twins and twin-singleton mortality convergence in Sub-Saharan Africa
Substantial literature documents that twins have higher mortality than singletons, but does not address whether this twin disadvantage eventually disappears, and if so, at what age. Roland Pongou, David Shapiro … Read more
Explaining disability trends in the United States, 1963-2015
Using the world’s longest running survey of health data, the National Health Interview Survey, Jona Schellekens shows that the decrease in mortality from cardiovascular disease in the US postponed the … Read more
Impact of obesity on life expectancy levels and trends in Europe
Since the 1980s, obesity prevalence has increased threefold in many European countries. Without obesity, life expectancy in 26 European countries in 2012 would have been, on average, 1.2 years higher … Read more
Longer birth intervals can reduce infant mortality in poor countries
Recent work on wealthy populations has called into question long-standing conclusions about the importance of birth spacing for infant health. Using data from 77 countries, Joseph Molitoris and colleagues show … Read more
Disparities in mortality and marriage create unequal kin safety nets in the USA
Heeju Sohn quantifies the diverging kin networks of adults with low and high socioeconomic status (SES) in the United States. In 2013, high SES adults had about 13 years with … Read more
Homicides in Latin America: a global health challenge
Homicide rates in Latin America are higher than elsewhere in the world, although with considerable variation within the region. In some countries, they are so high that they are significantly … Read more
Gender gaps in life expectancy and alcohol consumption in Eastern Europe
Female life expectancy is higher than that of males, and this gender gap is largest in Eastern Europe. Sergi Trias-Llimós and Fanny Janssen show that alcohol-attributable mortality explained more than … Read more
The ultimate inequality: vast mortality disparities across U.S. regions
The ultimate form of health inequality is death. Combining the concepts of region, division, and urban-rural residence in the U.S., Wesley James, Jeralynn Cossman, Julia Wolf highlight variation in mortality … Read more
Do adults in urban sub-Saharan Africa experience lower mortality?
Today, urban health conditions are often assumed to be universally superior to those of the rural sector. However, as Ashira Menashe-Oren and Guy Stecklov show, while child mortality is higher … Read more
Age, gender, alcohol, and traffic accidents in Brazil
According to the World Health Organization’s Global Report Status Report on Road Safety 2015, more than 1.2 million people die every year on the roads around the world, most of … Read more
Summertime, and the livin’ is easy … and longer
“Summertime, and the livin’ is easy” — so begins one of the most famous American songs, Summertime from the Gershwin brothers’ Porgy and Bess. Is the living really easier in … Read more
Smoking inequalities in France and the United States
While public health officials worry about the distressingly high levels of tobacco use across the world, they increasingly recognize that smoking also worsens inequalities in health and life expectancy.Trends in … Read more
Unstable union history linked to higher childhood mortality risk
The marriage-go-round can be a costly ride for children in post-industrial countries as family instability is associated with elevated risk of negative outcomes like teen pregnancy, depression, aggression, asthma, and … Read more
Population density interacts with sanitation to predict child health
Studies on child health in developing countries often find that children are healthier in urban areas than in rural areas. There are many reasons for this disparity. People in urban … Read more
Health effects of working beyond State Pension Age in England
Paid work in adulthood is generally considered beneficial for physical and psychological health and well-being (Woodell and Burton 2006) but its effects at older ages are unclear. Research on work … Read more
Neonatal mortality trend in Indian states, 1981-2011
According to the most recent estimates, under-five mortality¹ in India is decreasing, but the annual number of under-five deaths is still as high as 1.2 million, the largest in the … Read more
Smoking in Italy since World War II
Smoking has obviously and significantly impacted human mortality. And while the death toll from smoking may be its most striking legacy, the study of smoking also reveals aspects of social, … Read more
Infectious diseases in ageing populations: a neglected cause of mortality?
In countries with high life expectancies, death is predominantly the consequence of cancers and diseases of the circulatory system. Yet, infectious diseases have not disappeared from public health concerns, and … Read more
Deaths exceed births in most of Europe, but not in the United States, and not in Texas
Prevalence of natural decrease In the first decade of the 21st century (2000-2009), 58 percent of the 1,391 counties of Europe had more deaths than birthscompared to just 28 percent … Read more
Is there a gender bias in births and child mortality in Indonesia?
Son preference and gender bias, which are revealed in births and child mortality, tend to be concentrated in South Asia, East Asia, Southeast Europe, and the South Caucasus—places where patrilineal … Read more
Progression de l’espérance de vie: un champ encore grand ouvert mais non sans limite
Si Jeanne Calment a vécu un peu plus de 122 ans et que rien n’indique clairement que ce record mondial soit une limite infranchissable, il est fort probable qu’une telle … Read more
La limite de la vie humaine
La doyenne de l’humanité, la française Jeanne Calment est décédée en 1997 à 122 ans et 5 mois. Bien que dûment vérifié et homologué par le groupe international de recherche … Read more
Obesity and development – maybe a fit?
Wikipedia informs us that “obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have a negative effect on health, leading to … Read more
Innovations in register data: the value of linkages to prescription databases illustrated by an analysis of underuse of medication among the unmarried
Data from registers that cover entire national populations have been extensively used in demography, other social sciences, and epidemiology over the last three decades.The Nordic countries in particular have very valuable … Read more
Black-White Mortality Differentials in the United States
In the United States, mortality rates differ across racial and ethnic groups. Although the gap in life expectancy between non-Hispanic blacks and non-Hispanic whites (blacks and whites, hereafter) has been declining, … Read more