International Handbook of Adult Mortality

"Over the past few decades researchers have generated numerous publications highlighting advances in trends and determinants of adult mortality changes.  Now, Richard Rogers and Eileen Crimmins have engaged many of the leading contributors to that storehouse of information to place in a single volume the present state of knowledge about human adult mortality, its variations over time and place and its many causes, as well as influential policy formulations.  The book’s rich and elaborate treatment of the subject, including methodological considerations and extensive literature reviews, establishes a benchmark for monitoring future developments of the subject that other researchers and students will rely on for years to come".

Charles B. Nam, Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus, Florida State University

"There is very considerable diversity both within and among countries in the mortality experience of adults, and this diversity is well captured, described and explained in the course of this book. This wide-ranging and exhaustive collection of studies of adult mortality gives a fascinating account. A complete analysis of the characteristics of adult morality and its extension to the morbid process preceding death, but above all the involvement of scholars from various disciplines, make this book an important reference point not only for the academic world – researchers, teachers and students – but also for the political world and those working in the health services. Its contents are particularly valuable for implementing health and social policies that aim to reduce the consequences of inequality and thus to provide better health for all".

Graziella Caselli, University of Rome “La Sapienza”.

"This book is a landmark publication. It comes close to being a recipe for a long and healthy life. The book lays out the factors that explain the gains in life expectancy and healthexpectancy witnessed across the world. They are genetic, behavioral, social, environmental and institutional. Richard Rogers and Eileen Crimmins assembled an interdisciplinary team of first-class scientists from different countries of the world to uncover the secrets of avoidable mortality and delayed morbidity. The book also documents why in some countries life expectancy stagnated and in some places even declined. The historical and global perspective on mortality change makes the International Handbook of Adult Mortality a must-read for anyone interested in living longer and postponing disease and disability. The book will be a standard reference for years to come".

Frans Willekens, Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI)

"An outstanding job of organizing and synthesizing knowledge in all of the important areas of research on adult mortality. By consolidating a surprisingly rich array of major research accomplishments, the volume sets the stage for rapid advances in the future."

Samuel H. Preston, Fredrick J. Warren Professor of Demography, University of Pennsylvania