A “New” General Theory of Population Ageing

Authors: Jean-Pierre Michel¹; Jean-Marie Robine²

Source: The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Volume 29, Number 4, October 2004 , pp. 667-678(12)

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

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Abstract:

The main theories of population ageing based on recent data on human longevity, life expectancy, morbidity changes, disability trends and fall in mortality show co-existing contradictory tendencies in disability and functioning. These contradictions reflect differences in geographic, cultural, socio-economic, political and medical contexts, for instance:

• an increase in the survival rates of sick persons which would explain the expansion of morbidity and/or disability that is now taking place in Taiwan,

• control of the progression of chronic diseases which would explain the subtle equilibrium between the fall in mortality and the increase in disability currently observed in the U.K.,

• an improvement in the health status and health behaviours of the new cohorts of old people which would explain the reduction in morbidity and/or disability now found in France, Switzerland and the U.S.

Document Type: Original article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0440.2004.00309.x

Affiliations: 1: Geriatric Department, Geneva University Hospitals, Thonex-Geneva, Switzerland 2: INSERM, Health and Demography, University of Montpellier 1, France

Publication date: 2004-10-01