Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Profiles of Aging

  • Chapter
The Transitions of Aging

Part of the book series: International Perspectives on Aging ((Int. Perspect. Aging,volume 12))

  • 570 Accesses

Abstract

Starting early in the adult life cycles, cohorts brought up since the early nineteenth century have traced unique profiles of non-communicable diseases, suggesting that the aging potentials across them had changed over the long term. This cross-generation or cross-cohort change seems to have been the main thrust of modern aging. However, the profiles tend to converge at advanced ages, suggesting that the progress at older ages is less than the progress at younger ones. Quantified in terms of the parameters α and β, and in terms of the mortality rate doubling times, the history of such profiles also has a prolonged episode in the nineteenth century, when about three to four successive generations fared worse than the ones before. In light of the evidence on cross-cohort aging, the chapter offers a synthesis of the opposing views in the debate on aging and its prospects. It also connects with the long-running debate on the trends in living standards during industrialization, outlining how the profiles do not always agree with the time at which the conventional measures indicate an improving or worsening standard.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Costa, D. L. (2002). Changing chronic disease rates and the long-term declines in functional limitations among older men. Demography, 39(1), 119–137.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Costa, D. L. (2003). Understanding the mid-life and older-age mortality declines: Evidence from the Union Army veterans. Journal of Econometrics, 112(1), 175–192.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Finch, C. E. (1990). Longevity, senescence and the genome. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Floud, R., & Wachter, K. (1982). Poverty and physical stature: Evidence on the standard of living in London boys, 1770–1870. Social Science History, 6, 422–452.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Floud, R., Wachter, K., & Gregory, A. (1990). Height, health, and history: Nutritional status in the United Kingdom, 1750–1980. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Floud, R., Fogel, R. W., Harris, B., & Hong, S. C. (2011). The changing body, health nutrition and human development in the western world since 1700 (NBER). New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Fogel, R. W. (1993). Economic growth, population theory and physiology: The bearing of long-term processes on the making of economic policy. American Economic Review, 84(3), 369–395.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fridlizius, G. (1989). The deformation of cohorts: Nineteenth century mortality decline in generational perspective. Scandinavian Economic History Review/Economy and Society, 37, 3–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fries, J. F. (1980). Aging, natural death and compression of morbidity. New England Journal of Medicine, 303(3), 130–135.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fries, J. F. (1989). The compression of morbidity: Near or far? Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly, 67(2), 208–232.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gavrilov, L. A., & Gavrilova, N. S. (2011). Mortality measurement at advanced ages: A study of the social security administration death master file. North American Actuarial Journal, 15(3), 432–447.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gavrilova, N. S., Gavrilov, L. A., Evdokushkina, G. N., & Semyonova, V. G. (2003). Early-life predictors of human longevity: Analysis of the 19th century birth-cohorts. Annales de Demographie Historique, 2, 177–198.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gompertz, B. (1825). On the nature of the function expressive of the law of human mortality, and on the mode of determining the value of life contingencies. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 115, 513–585.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gompertz, B. (1872). On the uniform law of mortality from birth to extreme old age, and on the law of sickness. Journal of the Institute of Actuaries, 16, 329–344.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harris, B. (2001). “The child is the father to man” the relationship between child health and adult mortality in the 19th and 20th centuries. International Journal of Epidemiology, 30, 688–696.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hartwell, R. M., & Engerman, S. (1975). Models of immiserization: The theoretical basis of pessimism. In A. J. Taylor (Ed.), The standard of living in Britain in the industrial revolution. London: Methuen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hayflick, L. (1985). Theories of aging. In R. Andres, E. L. Bierman, & W. R. Hazzard (Eds.), Principles of geriatric medicine (pp. 9–21). New York: McGraw Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hobsbawm, E. J. (1957). The British standard of living, 1790–1850. The Economic History Review, 10, 46–68.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Horiuchi, S. (1989). Some methodological issues in the assessment of the deceleration of the mortality decline. In L. Ruzicka, G. Wunsch, & P. Kane (Eds.), Differential mortality: Methodological issues and biosocial factors (pp. 64–78). Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kermack, W. O., McKendrick, A. G., & McKinlay, P. L. (1934, March). Death rates in Great Britain and Sweden; Some general regularities and their significance. The Lancet, 31, 698–703.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirkwood, T. B. L. (1977). Evolution of ageing. Nature, 270, 301–304.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kirkwood, T. B. L. (1981). Repair and its evolution: Survival versus reproduction. In C. R. Townsend & P. Calow (Eds.), Physiological ecology an evolutionary approach to resource use (pp. 165–189). Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirkwood, T. B. L. (1985). Comparative evolutionary aspects of longevity. In C. E. Finch & E. L. Schneider (Eds.), Handbook of the biology of aging (2nd ed., pp. 27–45). New York: Plenum Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirkwood, T. B. L. (1999). Time of our lives: The science of human aging. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirkwood, T. B. L., & Holliday, R. (1979). The evolution of longevity. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 205, 532–546.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Komlos, J. (1993a). Further thoughts on the nutritional status of the British population. The Economic History Review, 46(3), 363–366.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Komlos, J. (1993b). A Malthusian episode revisited: The height of British and Irish servants in colonial America. The Economic History Review, 46(2), 768–782.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Komlos, J. (1993c). The secular trend in the biological standard of living in the United Kingdom: 1730–1860. The Economic History Review, 46(1), 115–144.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Komlos, J. (1998). Shrinking in a growing economy: The mystery of physical stature during the industrial revolution. Journal of Economic History, 58(3), 779–802.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee, R. D., & Carter, L. R. (1992). Modeling and forecasting United States mortality. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 87(419), 659–671.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindert, P. (1994). Unequal living standards. In R. Floud & D. McCloskey (Eds.), The economic history of Britain since 1700 (Vol. 1, pp. 357–386). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindert, P., & Williamson, J. (1983). English workers’ living standards during the industrial revolution: A new look. The Economic History Review, 36, 1–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Medawar, P. B. (1952). An unsolved problem of biology. London: Lewis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nussbaum, M. (2011). Creating capabilities, the human development approach. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • OECD. (2013). Public spending on health and long-term care: A new set of projections (OECD economic policy papers, no. 6). Paris: OECD.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oeppen, J., & Vaupel, J. (2002). Broken limits to life expectancy. Science, 296, 1029–1031.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olshansky, S. J. (1985). Delay versus elimination of degenerative diseases. American Journal of Public Health, 75(7), 754–757.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olshansky, S. J., & Ault, A. B. (1986). The fourth stage of the epidemiologic transition: The age of delayed degenerative diseases. Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly, 64(3), 355–391.

    Google Scholar 

  • Olshansky, S. J., Carnes, B. A., & Cassel, C. (1990). In search of Methuselah: Estimating the upper limits to human longevity. Science, 250, 634–640.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rau, R., Soroko, E., Jasilionis, D., & Vaupel, J. (2008). Continued reductions in mortality at advanced ages. Population and Development Review, 34(4), 747–768.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rose, M. R. (1991). Evolutionary biology of aging. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosenbaum, S. (1988). 100 years of heights and weights. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 151, 276–309.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sen, A. K. (1984). The living standard. Oxford Economic Papers, 36.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sen, A. K. (1985). Commodities and capabilities. Amsterdam: North-Holland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sen, A. K. (1987). In G. Hawthorn (Ed.), The standard of living. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Sen, A. K. (1999). Commodities and capabilities. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spicer, C. C. (1954). The generation method of analysis applied to mortality from respiratory tuberculosis. Journal of Hygiene, 52(3), 361–368.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Springett, V. H. (1952). An interpretation of the statistical trends in tuberculosis. Lancet, 259(6708), 521–525.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Steckel, R. H. (1995). Stature and the standard of living. Journal of Economic Literature, 33(4), 1903–1940.

    Google Scholar 

  • Steckel, R. H., & Costa, D. L. (1997). Long-term trends in health, welfare and economic growth in the United States. In R. H. Steckel & R. Floud (Eds.), Health, welfare and industrialization. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Steckel, R. H., & Floud, R. (1997). Health, welfare and industrialization. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Strehler, B. L., & Mildvan, A. S. (1960). General theory of mortality and aging. Science, 132(3418), 14–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thatcher, A. R., Kannisto, V., & Vaupel, J. W. (1998). The trajectory of mortality from ages 80 to 120. Odense: Odense University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vaupel, J. W., & Lundström, H. (1994). Prospects for longer life expectancy. In D. Wise (Ed.), Studies in economics of aging. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Von Tunzelmann, N. (1979). Trends in real wages, 1750–1850, revisited. The Economic History Review, 32, 33–49.

    Google Scholar 

  • Von Tunzelmann, N. (1985). The standard of living debate and optimal economic growth. In J. Mokyr (Ed.), The economics of the industrial revolution. London: Allen and Unwin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Waaler, H. T. (1984). Height, weight and mortality: The Norwegian experience. Acta Medica Scandinavia Supplement, 679, 1–51.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, G. C. (1957). Pleiotropy, natural selection and the evolution of senescence. Evolution, 11(4), 398–411.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, B. (1987). The standard of living: Interests and capabilities. In G. Hawthorn (Ed.), Amartya Sen’s The standard of living. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio, Columbus, OH, USA

    Suchit Arora

Authors
  1. Suchit Arora
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Arora, S. (2015). The Profiles of Aging. In: The Transitions of Aging. International Perspectives on Aging, vol 12. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14403-0_3

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation