Volume 21 - Article 19 | Pages 569–598  

Dissecting the compression of mortality in Switzerland, 1876-2005

By Siu Lan Karen Cheung, Jean-Marie Robine, Fred Paccaud, Alfio Marazzi

Abstract

This paper aims to examine changes in common longevity and variability of the adult life span, and attempts to answer whether or not the compression of mortality continues in Switzerland in the years 1876-2005. The results show that the negative relationships between the large increase in the adult modal age at death, observed at least from the 1920s, and the decrease in the standard deviation of the ages at deaths occurring above it, illustrate a significant compression of adult mortality. Typical adult longevity increased by about 10% during the last fifty years in Switzerland, and adult heterogeneity in the age at death decreased in the same proportion. This analysis has not found any evidence suggesting that we are approaching longevity limits in term of modal or even maximum life spans. It ascertains a slowdown in the reduction of adult heterogeneity in longevity, already observed in Japan and other low mortality countries.

Author’s Affiliation

• Siu Lan Karen Cheung - University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong EMAIL
• Jean-Marie Robine - Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), France EMAIL
• Fred Paccaud - Université de Lausanne, Switzerland EMAIL
• Alfio Marazzi - Université de Lausanne, Switzerland EMAIL

Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research

Arthur Roger Thatcher's contributions to longevity research: A Reflexion
Volume 22 - Article 18

The compression of deaths above the mode
Volume 22 - Article 17

The question of the human mortality plateau: Contrasting insights by longevity pioneers
Volume 48 - Article 11

The mystery of Japan's missing centenarians explained
Volume 26 - Article 11

Occupational inequalities in health expectancies in France in the early 2000s: Unequal chances of reaching and living retirement in good health
Volume 25 - Article 12

Similar articles in Demographic Research

Mortality shifts and mortality compression in period and cohort life tables
Volume 41 - Article 40    | Keywords: age at death, cohort life expectancy, compression of mortality, distribution of deaths, mean age at death, period life expectancy

Decomposing changes in life expectancy: Compression versus shifting mortality
Volume 33 - Article 14    | Keywords: compression of mortality, decomposition, life expectancy, modal age at death, mortality models, shifting mortality

Arthur Roger Thatcher's contributions to longevity research: A Reflexion
Volume 22 - Article 18    | Keywords: centenarians, compression of mortality, Kannisto-Thatcher Database on Old Age Mortality (KTD), longevity, old age mortality, supercentenarians

The compression of deaths above the mode
Volume 22 - Article 17    | Keywords: compression of mortality, Lexis model, logistic model, modal age of death, oldest old mortality decline, standard deviation

The modal age at death and the shifting mortality hypothesis
Volume 19 - Article 30    | Keywords: compression of mortality, distribution of deaths, life table modal age at death, mortality models, shifting mortality