REDUCTIONS IN MORTALITY AT ADVANCED AGES - SEVERAL DECADES OF EVIDENCE FROM 27 COUNTRIES

Can death rates be reduced for octogenarians, nonagenarians, and even centenarians? It is widely assumed that mortality at advanced ages is attributable to old age per se and that death rates at advanced ages c annot be substantially reduced. Using a larger body of data than previ ously available, the authors find that developed countries have made p rogress in reducing death rates even at the highest ages. Furthermore, the pace of this progress has accelerated over the course of the twen tieth century. In most developed countries outside Eastern Europe, ave rage death rates at ages 80-99 have declined at a rate of 1 to 2 perce nt per year for females and 0.5 to 1.5 percent per year for males sinc e the 1960s. For an aggregate of nine countries with reliable data thr ough 1991, the annual average rate of improvement between 1982-86 and 1987-91 was 1.7 percent for male octogenarians and 2.5 percent for fem ale octogenarians.