Mortpak The United Nations Software Package For Mortality Measurement

This book offers an ideal introduction to the analysis of demographic data. Inside, readers of all quantitative skill levels will find the information they need to develop a solid understanding of the methods used to study human populations and how they change over time due to such factors as birth, death, and migration. The comprehensive, systematic coverage defines basic concepts and introduces data sources; champions the use of Lexis diagrams as a device for visualizing demographic measures; highlights the importance of making comparisons (whether over time or between populations at a point in time) that control for differences in population composition; describes approaches to analyzing mortality, fertility, and migration; and details approaches to the important field of population projection. Throughout, the author makes the material accessible for readers through careful exposition, the use of examples, and other helpful features. This book's thorough coverage of basic concepts and principles lays a firm foundation for anyone contemplating undertaking demographic research, whether in a university setting or in a professional employment that takes on a demographic dimension requiring in-house training.

This book is intended as a relatively nontechnica1 introduction to eurrent demographie methods. It has been several years in preparation, beginning from occasional class handouts I wrote to elaborate on essential points of demographie methodology. Its growth from scattered notes to an integrated text was a natural process, if a gradual one. The eontent of the book addresses three objectives. first, I have tried to avoid demographie methods that are now dated. In some ehapters, that has meant eoncentrating on formulas most demographers recognize. In the ehap ters on life tables, it meant testing competing formulas on a variety of real and synthetie data se.ts, and dropping or relegating to footnotes those that were least accurate. Second, I have attempted to give readers a sense of the limits of different formulas and methods. I am a terse writer, however, and for the reader that means most sentences carry weight. Chapters should be read attentively, with careful regard to commentary as weIl as to formulas and examples. Finally, I have tried to make the principal methodologies of the book accessible, by offering explanations for formulas that are not obvious, by keeping examples to the forefront, and by placing relatively specialized topics in ehapter appendices.

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.

In recent years there have been alarming reports of rapid decreases in life expectancy in the New Independent States (former members of the Soviet Union). To help assess priorities for health policy, the Committee on Population organized two workshopsâ€"the first on adult mortality and disability, the second on adult health priorities and policies. Participants included demographers, epidemiologists, public health specialists, economists, and policymakers from the NIS countries, the United States, and Western Europe. This volume consists of selected papers presented at the workshops. They assess the reliability of data on mortality, morbidity, and disability; analyze regional patterns and trends in mortality rates and causes of death; review evidence about major determinants of adult mortality; and discuss implications for health policy.