The Demography and Epidemiology of Human Health and Aging

With this book, Siegel, an internationally known demographer and gerontologist, has made a unique contribution to the fledgling fields of health demography, and the demography and epidemiology of aging. The book represents a felicitous union of epidemiology, gerontology, and demography, and appears to be the first and only comprehensive text on this subject now available. Drawing on a wide range of sciences in addition to demography, gerontology, and epidemiology, including medical sociology, biostatistics, public policy, bioethics, and molecular biology, the author treats theoretical and applied issues, links methods and findings, covers the material internationally, nationally, and locally, and while focusing on the elderly, treats the entire life course. The methods, materials, and pespectives of demography and epidemiology are brought to bear on such topics as the prospects for future increases in human longevity, the relative contribution of life style, environment, genetics, and chance in human longevity, the measurement of the share of healthy years in total life expectancy, the role of population growth in the rising costs of health care, and the applications of health demography in serving the health needs of local communities. The separate chapters systematically develop the topics of the sources and quality of health data; mortality, life tables, and the measurement of health status; the interrelationships of health, on the one hand, and mortality, fertility, migration, and age structure, on the other; health conditions in the less developed countries; the concepts and theories of aging and projections of the aged population; and local health applications, public health policy, and bioethical issues in health demography. Given its comprehensiveness, clarity, interdisciplinary scope, and authencity, this book appeals to a wide range of users, from students and teachers of medical sociology, the demography of aging, and public health studies to practitioners in these areas, both as a text in health demography and the demography/epidemiology of aging, and as a reference work in these fields. Front Matter....Pages i-xxii Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Introduction....Pages 3-17 Sources and Quality of Data for Mortality and Health Studies....Pages 19-70 Front Matter....Pages 71-71 Concepts and Basic Measures of Mortality....Pages 73-134 The Life Table....Pages 135-216 Measures of Health Status, Functioning, and Use of Health Services....Pages 217-267 Front Matter....Pages 269-270 Health Inequalities, General Trends in Mortality and Morbidity, and Associated Factors....Pages 271-361 Demographic and Socioeconomic Group Differences in Morbidity and Mortality....Pages 363-422 Gauging Population Health: Measures Linking Mortality and Morbidity....Pages 423-467 Reproductive Health....Pages 469-531 Health and Migration....Pages 533-577 Special Health Issues in Less Developed Countries....Pages 579-640 Interrelations of Health, Mortality, and Age Structure....Pages 641-681 Front Matter....Pages 683-683 Concepts and Theories of Longevity....Pages 685-729 Models of Aging, Health, and Mortality, and Mortality/Health Projections....Pages 731-773 Front Matter....Pages 775-775 Health Policy....Pages 777-832 Applied Health Demography....Pages 833-875 Some Ethical and Legal Aspects of Health Demography....Pages 877-914 Back Matter....Pages 915-985 Spanning the disciplines of epidemiology, gerontology, and demography, this comprehensive book addresses theoretical and applied issues in health and aging, links methods and findings, and focuses on the elderly in context of the entire human life cycle.