THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN MORTALITY, MORBIDITY AND AGE IN NEW-ZEALAND OLDEST-OLD

People aged eighty-five yeats and over (the oldest old) will form an i ncreasing proportion of the population of New Zealand and many other c ountries. Because of their smaller numbers and relative inaccessibilit y, their health status has sometimes been extrapolated from population s of people aged sixty-five to eighty-four years. For people aged sixt y-five to eighty-four years an exponential relationship is seen betwee n age and morbidity and mortality. We explore if this exponential rela tionship extends to people aged ninety years and over. We analyzed dat a from the New Zealand 1991 Census and 1992 hospital discharge records and, for people aged sixty to eighty-nine years, confirmed an exponen tial relationship between age and mortality, inactivity, hospital util ization, and occupation of residential institutions. This exponential trend did not continue for people aged ninety years and over for whom mortality rates and indicators of morbidity were considerably lower th an expected, and conclude that the actual health status of people aged ninety years and over is better than the status extrapolated from tha t of people aged sixty to eighty-nine years.