SURVIVAL AFTER THE AGE OF 80 IN THE UNITED-STATES, SWEDEN, FRANCE, ENGLAND, AND JAPAN

Background. In many developed countries, life expectancy at birth is h igher than in the United States. Newly available data permit, for the first time, reliable cross-national comparisons of mortality among per sons 80 years of age or older. Such comparisons are important, because in many developed countries more than half of women and a third of me n now die after the age of 80. Methods. We used extinct-cohort methods to assess mortality in Japan, Sweden, France, and England (including Wales) and among U.S. whites for cohorts born from 1880 to 1894, and u sed cross-sectional data for the year 1987. Extinct-cohort methods rel y on continuously collected data from death certificates and do not us e the less reliable data from censuses. Results. In the United States, life expectancy at the age of 80 and survival from the ages of 80 to 100 significantly exceeded life expectancy in Sweden, France, England, and Japan (P<0.01). This finding was confirmed with accurate cross-se ctional data for 1987. The average life expectancy in the United State s is 9.1 years for 80-year-old white women and 7.0 years for 80-year-o ld white men. Conclusions. For people 80 years old or older, life expe ctancy is greater in the United States than it is in Sweden, France, E ngland, or Japan.