title: Causes of international increases in older age life expectancy.
abstract: In high-income countries, life expectancy at age 60 years has increased in recent decades. Falling tobacco use (for men only) and cardiovascular disease mortality (for both men and women) are the main factors contributing to this rise. In high-income countries, avoidable male mortality has fallen since 1980 because of decreases in avoidable cardiovascular deaths. For men in Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, and central Asia, and for women in all regions, avoidable mortality has changed little or increased since 1980. As yet, no evidence exists that the rate of improvement in older age mortality (60 years and older) is slowing down or that older age deaths are being compressed into a narrow age band as they approach a hypothesised upper limit to longevity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Statistics and Information Systems, WHO, Geneva, Switzerland. Electronic address: mathersc@who.int.
authors.forename: Colin D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Mathers
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Statistics and Information Systems, WHO, Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Gretchen A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Stevens
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Statistics and Information Systems, WHO, Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Ties
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Boerma
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Division of Infectious Disease Control, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway; Department of Health Statistics, Division of Epidemiology, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Richard A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: White
authors.affiliation: Health and Disability Intelligence, Ministry of Health, Wellington, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Martin I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Tobias
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002423:Cause of Death; D019049:Developed Countries; D003906:Developing Countries; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008017:Life Expectancy; D008136:Longevity; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011157:Population Dynamics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors